Snell grades helmets every 5 years and comes out with new minimum safety standards every 5 years. Snell 90 or SA1990 would be a Snell approved helmet as of 1990. Obviously you want the latest. This why helmet shops are all but giving away Snell 95 helmets now.

 

thanks mc

 

True. The lack of emoticons was the subtlety. What do you expect from me? I went to Nashville YMCA Night Law School.

 

Didn't I read on another thread that you are a psychiatrist? I can't even spell it; although, I need one.

 

lol

 

Did you have to go to class dressed as a cop, sailor, Indian, etc, or was that stuff just for extra credit?

 

Alright! LOL

BTW, there really was such a school. It is now known as Nashville Law School. To my regret, I didn't go there. I was home schooled via Court-TV.

 

OK, found a shop here in Nashville that had Simpson helmets.

They don't seem significantly lower for me. I tried both the Voyager N and the LX N. The Voyager seemed a bit lower, but still was not worth the price difference for me. The LX was not noticably different from the G-Force helmet I have.

I guess I'll just have to live with sitting in a bad position

 

I rechecked the clearance and I can stick two fingers between the ceiling and the Simpson helmet...not quite the 1 1/2 inches I mentioned before. I'm surprised that it doesn't fit for you...same height-same pant length.

I have been thinking that my seat cushion has been slowly sinking in the middle. I feel more 'held in place' than before. Might contribute to greater headroom?

btw Ford cut a dome in the roof of the GT-40 so that Dan Gurney could fit the Le Mans car.

I hope that you can work it out.

 

Maybe I just have the seat normally reclined less? Dunno.

I guess I can deal with it, since I don't plan to be racing every weekend or anything. If I got serious, I could probably get a seat with lower brackets, or have something custom done for mine.

 

MB: I just went to the grocery store and of course I wore my helmet. anyway I took some measurements.
My seat is all the way back and I have my seat back more upright than I used to.
steering wheel center—sternum = 16 ¾ inches
steering wheel center—seat back = 26 ½ inches
seat cushion seam behind the triangle—roof = 35 ½ inches
seat cushion back seam—roof = 38 inches
I do have 2 finger breadths= 1 1/2 inches of clearance with my helmet on.

I recently have read (more like a quick look thru) several books on driving. They recommend having the seat back more upright than I usually do. Something about not having your shoulders leave the seat when you turn the wheel and having your wrists be able to easily rest on the top of the wheel. I have gradually cranked the seat back forward and find that once I get accustomed to it, I like it better.
I watch World Rally racing on SPEED religiously, and I notice how much closer they sit to the wheel than I used to sit.

I don't know if that puts my head under the tall part of the roof and accounts for the gap I have above my helmet. Maybe you are a TALL 6' 1" and I am a SHORT 6' 1"

 

Actually, I'm right at 6'1". Maybe I have short 34" legs, and you have long 34" legs

I'll have to take a tape measure out sometime to see how I am sitting.

The bad thing that I think you may be referencing is that if my legs were shorter, I'd be at a higher part in the roof, but since I sit so far back, my head is where the roof drops off.

 

I will say that it feels strange sitting that close to the wheel. I guess that I was used to 'stylin' by having the seat laid back.

When I got the 350 having enough room for a helmet was a prime concern. I also have a 510 and there seems to be about a foot of headroom in that car. Good luck,

 

If I go too far foward with the seat, my knees are hitting the bottom of the steering wheel when shifting, etc (which I like to have fairly low, pointed mid chest).

I've never been one to drive too far laid back. I guess I'll have to lean back more with a helmet on.

 

I leave the seat all the way back and only tilt the seat back slightly forward.

My neighbors are peeking through their windows as they watch me run back and forth to the car, wearing my helmet, adjusting the seat...They're probably going to call Tom Ridge on me.

 

LOLOL.

FT!

 

I finally decided to put the G-Force on and drive it (after it got dark, so MY neighbors wouldn't look at me funny) to see if some light bouncing would have my head in the roof. Well, with the seat slid up about 2" from the back, and the seat reclined a bit more than normal, it wasn't quite as uncomfortable as I thought. I couldn't even see any dents on the roof when I got out

I don't think I could drive all day like that, but should be able to do an autoX.

 

I can picture your knees up so high you can't use the side mirrors.
I'm going to an autocross this weekend. I think there are 2 350 drivers who are taller than I am. I'll see what they think.

MB I know that once you get on the track or autocross, you'll be hooked.

 

you can read up all you want to about snell ratings etc at their website http://www.smf.org/ SA is the rating for autoracing, so you probably wont have a lot of luck finding an SA rated helmet at a motorcycle shop. Most of the helmets there will be either DOT rated, or snell M rated (sometimes both). Snell also has a bunch of other standards for everything from horseback riding to snowboarding. A lot of times in racing that you do in your street car, clubs will let you run with an M rated helmet as well, the main difference being that SA rated helmets provide fire protection, whereas M rated helmets do not need to (reading through the standard, the other differences seem pretty minor). A lot of companies actually make both an SA and an M rated version of the same helmet, the only difference being the liner material (the SA will have a flame retardant liner) I couldn't find any helmets that actually held both ratings though, so I don't know what that is about. I spent a lot of time looking into this before I got my helmet (Bell M2 pro) because I also ride a motorcycle and have been considering tracking it. I was hoping to be able to find something that would be sufficient for both, and I believe an SA rated helmet will do that, but if the even you are at requires an M rated helmet, you probably won't have an easy time convincing the organizers that the SA will do.

Anyway, I did get the Bell helmet, mainly because it was the most comfortable one for my odd shaped head (). It isn't very useable as a motorcycle helmet because it lifts a lot starting around 60-70 mph, so I will probably be buying another helmet when I go to the track on my bike.

 

Also, on the other thread here, my head also hits the roof with my helmet on, and it really bugs me while I am sitting in the grid, but as soon as the green flag drops, I forget all about it.