Thread: Tech question for tech re fed

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Just a couple more areas I want to touch on.
General Regs 4.11, Open-bodied cars....
"When driver is in driving position in an open-bodied car, roll cage must be at least 3" in front of helmet"
In an "incident", belts are gonna stretch and your head can bobble forward, even with a neck collar on. I have to look at the worst possible scenario when I tech these cars and that is the car going over the wall upside-down with your face hanging out of the car as it comes over the corner of the wall. Not pretty.

Same paragraph:
"Cars without crossmember above driver's legs must have a strap or device to prevent legs from protruding outside chassis"
Same scenario. You're on a 160 mph pass when one of the slicks blows out. The car hooks to the wall and rolls several times, removing all the tinwork and leaving you with a bare chassis. The car launches over the wall upside down with your legs dangling outside the car as it goes over the corner of the wall. Again, not pretty.
You MUST contain your legs, knees and feet below the top frame rail. The most effective fix for this that I've seen is to weld tabs to the BOTTOM of the top frame rail and bolt nylon window net or nets to the tabs. SFI 27.1 window net like would be used in a doorslammer to keep the driver's left arm
in the car in the event of rollover. With you seated in the car in normal driving position and with tinwork removed, have one of your buddies lift up on your knees, legs and feet to see if they can come above the top frame rail. If yes, fix it. Mounting the net/nets to the bottom of the top frame rail will allow them to give a little without being torn off and still keep your feet/legs/knees below the top of the top frame rail
Race Car Safety Equipment, Window Net

The sentence that follows that has to do with "kidney bars". These bars are in place to prevent large flaps of tire from a blown slick from coming around and entering the driver's compartment and tearing up your back.

Just a little about arm restraints. These devices are designed to prevent the hands and arms from being flung outside the top frame rail where they could be....ummmm....detached from the body of the driver in the same upside-down, over the wall scenario. If you can't reach all the controls of the car when seated and ready to make a pass with the restraints mounted so that no part of your hands or arms can come above the top frame rail, then re-arrange the controls so that you can. I don't want to be addressing subsequent posts to "Lefty".

When I'm watching drag racing on TV and see a funny car do a burnout, the next thing I see is the hatch door come up so the car can air out some of the smoke. With the arm restraints in the proper place to prevent hands and arms from coming above the top frame rail, there is no way the driver could reach the hatch release mechanism. You just know they are mounted to his arms above the elbow. I can only hope he readjusts the restraints before launching on the pass.

Additional driver protection has been added to the 2008 Rulebook due to research of "incidents" and subsequent driver injuries or death. On page 270 under Top Fuel, driver compartment padding is addressed. We have had the SFI 45.1 padding on cage bars for years now, but the side padding is new. It reads: "Additional padding, mounted on flat stock and fastened to the roll cage on both sides of the driver's helmet, mandatory. Additional padding must be NHRA-accepted, securely mounted, using bolts or locking fasteners and must include flame-retardent covering."
This would be an excellent addition to any digger, funny, street roadster or altered with a funny cage, no matter the speed of the car.
ISP DRAG HEAD LATERAL HEAD SUPPORT-STANDARD - $235.00 : BSRProducts.com - Professional Racing Equipment

Another excellent safety device that is required in the Fuel ranks is the HANS device (Head And Neck Support). This device is attached to the driver and held in place by the shoulder belts. It attaches to the back of the helmet to prevent the head from extending forward. (the injury that killed Earnhardt in his NASCAR crash). Shoulder belt and lap belt attachment and geometry is critical when using this device to its full advantage. The HANS is not attached to the car in any way so that the driver can get out of the car quickly in event of fire.
Welcome

RJS and most likely other manufacturers offer a sternum strap that can be added to any shoulder belt set you order from them. It's quick-release and prevents the shoulder belts from spreading apart in an incident. This would be an excellent addition to your safety equipment if using a HANS device. It would keep the HANS in place.
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c...ce_1992_865643

Sorry for the long posts guys. Once I get going, it's hard to stop. I try to go into quite a lot of detail so that some of the fellows who are unfamiliar with the construction of drag race cars can get an idea of what is involved in keeping the driver in one piece.