[robz71lm7]

After sunday's autocross a novice asked on our region's message board about getting a cheap helmet. He got replies ranging from links where you could get an M2000 helmet for $60 and one even $49!

The site we raced at sunday was a military air strip with tall grass off the sides. The dirt wasn't always flat and smooth. In fact, yesterday and S2000 went off into the grass sideways-he wasn't the only one to go off into the grass. Now is it just me or this the kind of place where a good possibility of rolling over exists?

It just kind of disturbs me that people will recommend and use such cheap helmets. Am I being a little excessive here?

What's everyone's opinion on helmets in autocross?

[sgarnett]

As far as the safeness of a course designed so a car can go off the paved surface, I believe it is back to the drawing board. If the off-track surface is wet or bumpy, lookout. Two wheels can hook in that condition and over ya go.

It was an airport course, so there's little paved runoff room, and it had been raining.

I'll be running there at least once more soon, so my concession to safety will be a moratorium on setup changes. I'm sitting on my new Strano bars until I can get to an event in a large lot. They (like every other suspension change) may be better or may be worse, but they'll still be different, and I want to keep the predictable "devil I know" until I can safely test the change.