using helmets in mx5

[Rocky]

Holy smoke! think of the possibilities for whiplash with that sucker.
You'd need a couple of bungeys around the horns anchored to the roll bar.
Imagine if it got loose and charged the car in front.
Sorry Officer, but I'm on my way to rape and pillage.

[Mr nanotech]

As much as this makes me sound like a safety first circle jerk, I have given this a lot of thought over the years I've owned the mx5. It started when I suggested to some mates with mx5's that we should do a mountain run in full race gear just for a laugh. It was said innocently enough but it got me thinking about serious safety questions I've had regarding the car, especially those with roll bars and cages installed.
In normal city driving I'd shrug it off as a massive wank, but when it comes to the much talked about 'spirited driving' term we see on the forums; I have often wondered whether the addition of a helmet might actually be a good idea. I know there are a lot of people shaking their heads reading this, and I am too to a degree. For a long time I would have dismissed this as another idiot trying to take the fun out of driving; but to me, serious head injury isn't something to laugh about.
I've discussed this with mates before regarding the legality and the pro's and con's of driving with a helmet. The biggest one that comes up is visibility. My arguement here is that in an open top vehicle such as the mx5 (with the roof down at least), you have a very similar field of vision to a motorcyclist. In my experience wearing full faced helmets in the past, I don't recall losing a great deal (if any) peripheral vision as the visor of the helmet is wide enough to encompass my full field of view minus a small bordered edging. Considering a licensed driver should be performing regular headchecks as well as using their mirrors, I don't really see any justification to discredit wearing a helmet in a street car.
I know nothing about the physics of car crashes, but I'm assuming a potential problem may be whiplash with a greater mass to your head may result in a theoretical large increase in potential neck injuries. However, if appropriate seating and harnesses accompany the helmet... Then you can probably see where I'm going with this.

I'm not aware of any written law to stop people from doing this, though I can't see traffic police seeing it the same way I do. That said, I imagine you would just be told to remove the helmet before you continue driving if there is a problem.

What are other peoples thoughts on this?

[mazmad]

Seat belts allow a lot of movement still, in an accident. So if wearing a helmet, as your torso is not rigid and will move with your head to some extent, a helmet should not pose any greater spinal injury risk – and may save your scone.

However with a harness – which allows some movement but still far less than a seat belt in an crash – you are at much greater risk of spinal injuries with a helmet, without a HANS. So the ‘appropriate seating and harness’ should include a HANS in the setup.

[psquire45]

... I know im like a broken record.......So either live life how you want and F the police, or live it in fear and dont wear a hoodie or a helmet and drive a white camry. Dann

Tsk tsk Dann. Even for you.....
Yeah they are a pain in the $&$.... and sure there might be some indulging in revenue raising. But a lot of what they do is ...believe it or not.... aimed at helping people and saving lives. Evidence shows their draconian approach at black spots reduces accidents.

Who are you going to call when you get broken into btw?

WAHAHAAH! MY INSURANCE COMPANY!

the only reason id even bother calling the police any more is if i'm required to get an incident number.

over the course of my life Ive had my own garage / house / car broken into around 10 times and many other times Ive had friends in similar situations.

in my own experience calling the police 2 times they didn't ever turn up. 3 times they didn't til 1 to 2 days later. not once was any one ever charged. not once was any item ever returned to me.
in my friends experience they did get one car returned. as it was dumped on the side of a main road in blacktown but even that took 3 weeks to be noticed

[Black_Penguin]

On police response times, earlier this year some drop kick high on drugs kicked in the glass front door of my work. The owner called a glass company while I called the police, on an early Sunday evening the glass people arrived before the police.

Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk [url='http://tapatalk.com/m?id=10']now Free[/url]

[93_Clubman]

...but it got me thinking about serious safety questions I've had regarding the car...

Soft-top/ hardtop latch anchors at the top of the windscreen are exposed with top off/down & at forehead height for tall drivers & passengers - this was what Cheyne hit his head on - see 26-27 July 2009:
search.php?keywords=head&terms=all&author=cheynex5&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

[Mr Morlock]

Nanotech asked for comments. Take it as cast iron -you can wear a helmet in a road car. You cannot just put in race harnesses in a road car when it is designed with a seat belt system. Full face helmets do not generally have the same visibiity as open face helmets. As one who went from pudding basin to open face ( Jet) I never felt very comfortable in a full face but they are superior on a motorcycle.Horse riders still wear what amounts to a pudding basis style. Race car drivers are often not too concerned with great visibility as the intent is more forward than backward. You can even buy ( or could) hats which look normal with a fabric appearance but have a hard skull protection.

I am very dubious about roll bars in MX5s esp NA and NB (proximity to skulls) and I reckon that most only put them in for pose value- ie cool boy racers. I may be wrong. To those who are concerned for safety a non air bag car fails a basic test.

Re the Police - be aware that some/ most insurance cos require a Police Report . We have insurance to cover risk. Police are under resourced - that's our system- no one wants to pay more tax.

Of course the Glass co turns up fast- its their core business and they get paid.

[JBT]

On police response times, earlier this year some drop kick high on drugs kicked in the glass front door of my work. The owner called a glass company while I called the police, on an early Sunday evening the glass people arrived before the police.

Maybe the Police were out and about looking for said dropkick...or some other dropkick(s) breaking laws and/or causing problems.

[mazmad]

As Mr Morlock said - people don't want to pay tax, but want police on their doorstep within 30 seconds.

A properly installed roll bar will help in a roll over - just google squished miata's and see what turns up. Banged head or squished head.. that is the choice.

[sailaholic]

I've parted out a rolled mx5, I'm sure the roll bar helped the occupant as the windscreen came down a fair bit.

Roll bars also help stiffness and are required at some track events so not all for posers.

As for helmets, they may not be illegal but I'd hate to get pulled over wearing one in the qld mountains. The terms "hoon" and "street racing" would be applied so fast it would make your head spin. If you also happened it be data logging to a laptop for tuning purposes the you may as well hand over the keys for impound.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[plohl]

I've parted out a rolled mx5, I'm sure the roll bar helped the occupant as the windscreen came down a fair bit.

Roll bars also help stiffness and are required at some track events so not all for posers.

As for helmets, they may not be illegal but I'd hate to get pulled over wearing one in the qld mountains. The terms "hoon" and "street racing" would be applied so fast it would make your head spin. If you also happened it be data logging to a laptop for tuning purposes the you may as well hand over the keys for impound.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

Yeah - I sat in that wreck with a seat on the floor and could look straight over the windscreen. The roll bar definitely saved the drivers life.

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 4

[Mr Morlock]

You simply cannot tell by looking at a car with a bent windscreen that a roll bar saved the driver or passenger. If it's a scientific examination, you need more than an opinion but rather a proper series of tests or other data. The fact is, and I have said it before, that your head does not know the difference between the pavement or a roll bar and getting distance between the bar and your head in an MX5 is problematic.. Only recently someone remarked on the forum of getting a crack on the head from the roll bar from in a tail end bingle. Roll overs are not so common but collisions are and airbags are probably one of the best investments we can make. I have never queried roll bars for track driving. Perhaps all convertibles are suspect- I have never seen any data on it but I do recall that the MX5 is said to be above average or words to that effect in real life use. Any car weighing 1100 kg today is outweighed by just about everything else - many 4wds are double the weight.

[plohl]

You're right - you can not just look at the windscreen and tell if the roll bar saved their life. However with all the other information I had at hand when I purchased the wreck, it is quite apparent the driver would have had a extremely low chance of survival. Maybe i shouldn't have used "definitely". There are pictures of it in my build thread.

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 4