We sort of hi-jacked JR2's thread about Sebring and buried in it some important safety discussion... so I'm starting another thread to focus on preventing "bobble head injury".
Over the last couple of days I have reviewed a few thousand pictures taken during the last few years at SCCA events, F2kCS events, and the FF40th. In that search i have found examples of very good head restraint systems, and examples of poor systems (including my own).
After hearing of Brian's wreck at Lime Rock, and JR2's at Sebring, and then considering i have a neck old enough to collect social security, I have decided to work with the likes of Eric Langbien and Fred Clark to improve my Reynard.
Surprisingly what my research showed was that many older cars are safer than newer models. And, in many cases a chassis that is safe for one body type/size may be not so safe for another. In otherwords many times the solution has to be custom to the particular driver and chassis.
Formula Mazdas even though being an older design, by the nature of their design seem to give pretty good side head protection for a majority of their drivers:
And many cars older than 30 years do a good job:
Many models look great from the side view but from the front seem to have too much side-to-side clearance:
Note: Fast Forward has a solution for this particular case.
FEs tended to have a lot of photos leaving much to be desired:
But with a small enough driver, they improved:
One of the best new designs, Thank you Ford of Europe and Mygale (and Doug for the image):
The popular VD since the late 90s has many great examples of good systems:
But... without the bolsters the same chassis leaves much to be desired:
Just when you think a SRF must be really safe, you look at a view from the front:
John LaRue's Citation, and Ben Cooper's Elan are good examples of well thought out systems:
Unfortunately, in my review the Swift DB1 and DB6 seemed to have the highest percentage of examples that left the drivers helmet much room to bobble to and fro.
I post this to keep the discussion going and through this forum maybe make some improvements.