[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?

[Jeff97FST/A]

I've seen installation diagrams before (in addition to the Simpson pic) that show the shoulder belt mount 90* to the line formed by the shoulder belt as worn by the driver. The 90* mount causes the load on the belt to be in a straight line during an accident, not pulling down on the spine as it would at greater than 90, or allowing the body to rotate forward, as it would at less than 90.

My understanding of the submarine strap is to prevent the lap belt from riding up on the drivers torso. During an accident, the body pivots forward, the shoulders want to rotate away from the seat. As the body rotates, the rear mounting point for the shoulder harness stays stationary (we hope), effectively lengthening the distance from rear mount to the shoulder, shortening the distance from shoulder to lap. The shortened distance from shoulder to lap wants to pull the lap belt up on the torso, allowing the body to slip under the lap belt.

A properly installed sub strap (I think parallel to the line of the shoulder belts) keeps the lab belt placed across the hips.