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Ratings:
Helmets come in two main ratings, SA and M. The M rating stands for Motorcycle and IS NOT allowed on most tracks that I've heard about. The reason for this is that M rated helmets focus on kinetic protection and don't really have much in the way of fire protection. If you crash on a bike, you're more likely to get thrown from the bike like a human javelin and less likely to get pinned beneath the bike as it burns. Hence the greater focus on kinetic than fire protection. For cars, the opposite is more likely to happen (provided you're wearing your seat belt). If you crash in a car, your seat belt should arrest your movement fairly well. Yes, I know I'm ignoring the possibility of neck injuries but until Dell tells me I need a Hans device for the Lone Star Roundup I won't worry about it too much. You're not likely to go flying through the air like Superman in a car crash, but unfortunately that means you'll be closer to any fires that could potentially start. Because of that, SA rated helmets have more fire protection than M rated ones do.
The number of the SA rating is the year that those standards came out, i.e. the SA2005 standards were released in 2005. The ratings (and therefore the helmets) are only good for 10 years. If you buy a SA2005 helmet, you'll need to buy a new one in 2015. You might be able to find a SA2000 rated helmet on clearance or on eBay but that rating / helmet will only be good for one year and then you'll need to buy a new one.
What to buy:
From what I've seen, M rated helmets are cheaper than SA rated ones which is why a lot of first time buyers look at getting one of those. But because of the differences in ratings (see above), you'll want to buy a SA rated helmet. For anything involving an automobile, SA rated helmets are safer than the M ones. When it comes to safety, you really can't be too safe - it's better to have too much protection than not enough. Even if the event you're buying the helmet for doesn't require a SA rated helmet, chances are pretty high that you'll want to do that type of event again and you'll be severely limited in the number of those events you'll be able to participate in with a M rated helmet.
Face it, you bought a high performance car for a reason and you're going to want to do more events once you spend some time seeing just what these cars can do. If you live near a track or you have a local chapter of SCCA or SVT that puts on events like Solo / Autocross, you're probably going to wind up wanting to do a lot of these. Now that we've covered what rating you need, there are still a lot of SA rated helmets out there to choose from. There are open faced helmets and there are closed faced helmets. The closed face helmets offer a little more protection but they’re typically hotter than open faced ones. I know some guys that actually have one of each – they wear the closed faced helmet when it’s cooler and then switch to the open faced one for the summer. Helmet prices range from about $150 to above $1000, so what is the price range for you? That really depends on 1) how much can you afford and 2) how much are you going to use it? If you have access to events on a regular basis, I'd suggest spending a little more on a lighter weight helmet than just going with the cheapest SA helmet you can find. The lighter the helmet, the easier time your neck with have supporting it. However, if you’re only going to use the helmet once a year or so, you’d be better off going with a cheaper, heavier helmet. It’ll leave more cash in your pocket and the extra weight won’t really be a burden the couple of times you wear it each year. That being said, even if you don’t have access to a track or SCCA type events, you might live fairly close to a go-kart track where you can get a speed fix. A lot of the kart tracks I’m familiar with require helmets and you can use your own helmet there isn’t of renting one. So there are opportunities to use your helmet other than just in your car.
Properly sizing your helmet is crucial to providing adequate protection. Any motorcycle dealership will also sell M rated helmets, but it’s hard to find a store that carries an SA rated helmets in stock. That means you’ll most likely wind up having to order a helmet with trying it on first. HJC has a really good walkthrough that I found really helpful when I was buying my helmet. After reading through their walkthrough, I looked at the various helmets I could order online, picked out several I liked, and then went down to a motorcycle dealership. As I said earlier, a bike dealership likely won’t have SA rated helmets – but they will have M rated helmets made by the same manufacturers with the same sizing charts. I was interested in a HJC helmet so I tried on HJC motorcycle helmets until I found the size I needed. By doing that I was able to order a helmet online and be fairly confident that it would fit correctly.
Where to buy:
I’m not advocating one store over another here, I’m just listing online sites that sell SA rated helmets. If you know of a site that I don’t have listed, let us know what it is.
HJC Motorsports
Saferacer.com
HelmetCity.com
This post has been edited by oilbleak: 12 August 2008 - 06:41 AM
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