Scary story for the track guys..

[deviant]

I have been looking around at seat mounting options for my car and I stumbled across this Spec Miata forum and in particular the safety forum: http://forum.specmiata.com/cgi-bin/ulti ... aysPrune=0

Which in turn led me to be linked to this:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articl ... ting-fire/

Lots of food for thought in that forum, to be honest safety IS at the back of my mind but once I am on track I don't think about it and I push hard. My seat is mounted to stock sliders and I have a 4 point harness, a 1kg extinguisher and a BD bar. My helmet is not an $800 nomex lined thing. I wear gloves that are FIA approved but the rest of my attire (like most at club sprint / trackday level) consists of jeans, long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of sneakers.

My car has always been reliable but it IS pushed hard (as hard as a complete amateur like me can push anyway!) so the chance of something failing or me making a mistake are quite high and my car is hardly what you would call 'motorsport prepared'. If I had a big fire in the engine bay I would be screwed....if I had a fuel fire I would be screwed...If I lost my brakes or made a big mistake and stuffed it in to the tyres at speed I would be screwed.

What safety equipment are other people on here using?

What has been done to your car to make it safer?

[Hjt]

ejector seat perhaps?

[deviant]

Hehehe yeah...I think that would still feel to slow if you are sitting in a burning car though!!

I was doing some more reading on the fire survival side of all this and it makes for interesting reading. With a 3 layer suit and nomex underwear you are looking at around 25 seconds before the suit / underwear burn through but if you a moving at full steam it would take most of that time to react, bring the car to a stop in a safe place, bail out and start rolling around on the floor. If you are dazed, confused, broken boned it could take you much longer and even take the full 25 seconds to even realise you need to be getting out....by which time the smoke will be getting to you and your lungs will be burnt and the door handles will have melted making it even harder to get away.
It is interesting to read that the suit / underwear does little to stop heat getting through...guess I never really thought about that before.

There is a hideous story / pictures of a racer in the US that had a massive fuel fire inside the car when a fuel line burst. Despite wearing all the gear he was badly burnt and died on the scene. He had tried to set off his extinguisher, the pull handle on the dash was pulled out but someone had forgotten to remove the pin from the bottle so it never activated.

Something else to be thinking about is the crash strength of an MX5. We all know an NA has the strength of a wet paper bag, the NB is a bit better and the NC is the most modern and safe of the lot....but a big one on track or getting tangled up with another car.....

I'm sure a lot of people on here run a near as damn it stock car on track so is there such a thing as to far with all this? I guess there is always the risk of a crash or a fuel line bursting or a power steering hose blowing off...

[greenMachine]

Motor racing is dangerous. Yes, the big one could happen to you - or me - but we can take reasonable precautions.

Keep the fuel and oil out of the passenger compartment, regularly check your fire extinguisher (and that means shaking it to loosen any compaction in the contents, and making sure you can reach it belted up), wear the best clothing you can afford, wear a full face helmet with the visor down ... and keep your car in the best possible condition.

We all make choices, and going motor racing is one of those choices. We can always choose to not go racing, if the risks, or the risk/reward equation, is not to our liking.

[Guran]

Your concerns are very valid ones and I agree with Ed's reply. It is definitely a risky sport, but that is precisely why it's so much fun! As for the fire risk, have you considered how unlikely this is? How many crash wrecks have you seen on the news and what proportion of those were burnt out? Very very few in my memory. Fuel systems in modern cars (including 20yo NA's!) are designed to minimize the risk of fire in the event of crashes. Furthermore, most tracks are designed with safety in mind with respect to runoff areas, gravel traps, tyre barriers and armorguard. But ultimately you do roll the dice when you drive on the track kitted out in your race suit, flame resistant undies, helmet, balaclava, gloves, harness, rollbar, fire extinguisher, etc. Likewise, you roll the dice when you drive to the shops wearing your shorts and singlet with a threepoint seatbelt with other cars traveling in the opposite direction dríven by unlicensed people talking on mobile phones with a few beers in their belly. Honestly, I feel safer driving on the track sometimes!

[mx5racing]

Fire and being t-boned at high speed are probably drivers’ worst fears. That said we take all the precautions we feel are necessary however every now and then an incident happens that causes you to rethink the way you do things.

I personally won't drive a track car unless it has a full roll cage and side bars. There are plenty of racers who are happy with a half cage and no side bars. Without starting a whole debate on roll cages, the fact is an inverted MX5 will initially have the bonnet and the windscreen top on the ground. At speed and with force, the windscreen pillars will fold down into the passenger compartment and only stop when they are no longer subject to any pressure. If you take a string line from your half cage top to the front edge of the bonnet this will give you an idea of what will be in the line of fire if your upside down and skidding down the road.

There are also numerous types of fire. Fuel/oil fires are by far and away the most dangerous and can cause serious injury. If the fuel pump is feeding the fire then it usually takes hold before you realise there is a fire. Electrical fires whilst also worrying, generally give you some warning and you have a little time to isolate the ignition. Exhaust fires from debris or stopped on grass are also a concern and can start a fire long after the person has left the car. Fire “bombs” are good in theory however how do you check to see if they are working? Once you hit the button its all over – hopefully. At Targa last year a car burned to the ground after a minor hit caused it to stop on some grass. Within minutes the car was well alight and the following cars were unable to assist with hand held extinguishers as there’s were plumbed in.

The other thing you see if those with all the “safety” gear but don’t have it set up right… If you don’t know or aren’t sure ASK! Your helmet should be the right size for your head, your harness should be TIGHT and you should wear some sort of head/neck restraint. Even the most minor hit can have serious consequences if these items are not fitted correctly.

Also consider airbags. More damage to you (and your wallet) can occur if these deploy after a minor track hit. Your hand/wrist hitting your helmet as the bag deploys can do serious damage. In the case of the NC, the SRS kicks in a relatively low G’s and if deployed will set off both bags, seatbelts, module, etc

Motor racing is dangerous and accidents and deaths do occur. As recently as 2 weeks ago at Eastern Creek there was a crash which claimed the life of a racer. We accept that when we enter but when faced with the reality it is still confronting.

[barfridge]

I race sidecars as a passanger, and ride motorbikes almost daily. My car is the least of my transportation worries

[de Bounce]

I race sidecars as a passenger, and ride motorbikes almost daily. My car is the least of my transportation worries

In todays traffic, being a sidecar passenger might be considered the safest of those two!

[manga_blue]

and if you thinks MX5s don't roll badly, check this at about the 2:10 mark.

[ForceMajeure]

That was like watching a whole series of Top Gear destruction in 6 1/2 minutes!

[Mr. Keets]

racing is serious business no doubt but there looked like a few guys out there racing for sheep stations.

I wrote off a motorcycle late last year, I was wearing an Arai Corsair V, retails for around a $1000. the trauma doc recons it saved my life...i had just switched from a $200 Rjays open face, I doubt that the cheap hat would have held up...despite the AS/NZ sticker etc not helmets are created equal. Buy the best hat you can afford

[KIJIMA]

deviant, chances of fire ripping through your car aren't as high at a club day as compared to something like a Tarmac Rally. It's in a Tarmac Rally when you stick your car into the boonies that the bastard will light up everything around your car in a short time. then it's Good times go bad! If you have a standard fuel system without things like surge tanks and the like, I think to a larger degree you'll be fine... at least as fine as you can be while in the environment of a race track!

BSo what you can do to make your car safer? good question. We all know that it's Neck, Back and Arm injuries are the most commonly sustained, as for your neck in many cases a HANS device would go a long way to stop that, yet you rarely see people use a HANS device in club level motorsport. Buggered if I know why... Maybe cost? I reckon by the time you add up all the visits to the chiro, you'll still be in front after the purchase or a Helmet with posts.

5/6 point Harness would be another thing to do. Simply put there are too many good motor trimmers getting around not to have your drivers seat modified to take a crotch strap. It can be done nicely so it's hidden for the daily dríven car yet functional to take that crotch strap when required, so don't use that as an excuse. Why a 5/6 point over a 4 though?

Having been trackside when a 4 point harness buckle hooked up under a drivers sternum when the car was upside down, then proceeded to open him up like a Sunday roast (guys, I don't care how graphic that sounds) and all for what when a crutch strap would have gone a long way to keep him seated and avoid the nastiness... it's a no brainer.

Fire extinguishers... Just having them is not enough. Have you used one before? If not, no time like the present. As for the extinguisher itself. Nothing like a heavy metal bottle with a sharp blade type handle bouncing around in your cabin eh? Extinguishers need to be firmly anchored, and by that I don't mean by a metal frame (hopefully that part is obvious) what I mean is they should be twin clasps holding the extinguishers to keep the thing snug for when good times go bad. I've seen single clasp bottles come unstuck.

As for the rating of any extinguisher, get the highest 'BE' rating you can find. As an example a 5BE wouldnt put out a BBQ fire whereas an 30-40BE could be used to put out the Exxon Valdez. 20BE would be more than sufficient and if you require more than that, chances are your car is rooted anyway.

Cages... Where do I start.

I understand why people run the BD type bars and that cages are avoided, especially in a road car that is used in club level motorsport events only and usually daily dríven, hence why I suggested some other avenues to go down rather than the obvious which is man up and cage up.

This is all taking into consideration you have decent brake fluid, (don't want that pedal to drop to the floor now do we) pads and tyres etc. I'd assume that if you are going to a racetrack you are going there with all the right hardware to begin with.

Lastly, and we all have a laugh about this. The forum (any forum like ours) will see admiration and applause for when you strap that big turbo to your car, yet safety stuff see's you no internet points among your peers. It's true.... Safety gear is treated as a grudge purchase whereas go fast gear is bought up at a rapid rate. Internet points are awarded to how many kw's you have, not how safe your rocket is. I guess, safety items aren't 'sexy'.