any particular place online that has good pricing on helmets? thank you

 

www.tracksidesupply.com

Under Drivers Gear They carry Bell, Arai, Gforce and Sparco

 

http://www.gforce.com/

 

www.helmetcity.com

It's always best to try one on before you buy it.

 

http://www.saferacer.com/

 

www.racerwholesale.com

some of the best prices around on G-Force products

 

I'll vouch for racer wholesale. They have some great people that will discuss the items in depth with knowledge and they also have great prices. I ordered my helmet from them on a thursday at 5pm and had it by noon the next day. They are based out of Atlanta or around there and I am in Charlotte.

 

my good friends at Pyrotect, www.pyrotect.com. They have Bell and their private label Pyrotect helmets. all good quality and a good company that supports grassroots racers and racing.

 

Just bought an almost new HJC CL-14 on ebay for $50. Many sellers have brand new ones for $100-$110. Just try on a few at a motorcycle shop to get the right size.

 

That's a bike helmet.

 

that'd be fine for local events like autox and drift, but regional events or something like formula d is not going to allow an M-rated helmet.

 

You'll want to invest into an SA rated helmet if you plan on doing DE's regularly. As mentioned, some events will not allow M-rated helmets.

Now, not all motorcycle helmets are only M-rated, they do have SA rated motorcycle helmets that are inexpensive (around $100 and up) compared to the SA rated Bell and other name brands.

 

Some manufacturers who make both types of helmet make only one shell. If that shell is lined in nomex it's SA and if it lined in polyester or whatever it's M. My G-Force helmet is actually of SA construction but it's non-nomex liner makes it an M helmet. I think there is a difference in face sheild thickness as well; SA requires sturdier sheilds.

 

Ahh good to know. I just picked up the HJC cause it was cheap and my bro has used the same model at several HPDE's at Willow Springs. I'll post about it if I get hassled.

 

So I'm guessing yours doesn't have the SA2000 (or SA95) sticker on it? I'm assuming any helmet with a SA sticker is fully SA approved.

 

M may also feature a wider vision port than found on some SA helmets, since M class will also carry a DOT rating for street legality, while SA is a fire and crashworthiness rating from the privately organized Snell foundation. M is also issued by Snell. Don't buy anything without some kind of Snell rating, because the DOT rating is for construction specs only, while Snell goes and buys helmets and smashes them with special test equipment.

 

Right; my helmet is M rated only. The way I understand it is that my helmet has the same shell and structure as the SA version but since it's not lined in the SA required nomex that makes it an M helmet. The visor may or not be made of a different material as well. This is not true of every manufacturer but just like anything else mass produced it can make sense to limit the number of different parts you have to make.

 

Ah ok.

I was just making sure you weren't saying that your helmet had an SA sticker but was really M rated. You never know what some of these companies now a days will try.

 

sorry to jack this thread, but it appears as if it has been laid to rest...

is there some sort of restriction as far as the age of the helmet goes? i have an snell m-rated arai helmet, but it looks like it was from the early 90's. it's in overall good shape, would it be acceptable for autocross-only use? i don't have the money to particpate in more involved events (like open track days), so buying a new helmet now won't benefit me in the future as far as other events go...

 

the snell institute rates SA helmets by the standards re-established every five years. Those that are built to the 1995 standards are called SA95, 2000 standards are SA2000 and 2005 standards SA2005. Most sanctioning bodies require helmets be built either to the current or immediately previous standard. Currently your helmet must carry a SA2000 or SA2005 rating to be acceptable. What that means is that a SA2005 helmet will be acceptable until 2015.

 

ok, that's good to know.

this may be a stupid question, but are a majority of autocross events "sanctioned"? i don't meen competitive scca events, but just someplace where you can give your car a go and hopefully learn something from it.

 

Actually there is currently an "issue" with the SA-2005 rating helmets in that they are not going to be available until much later this year. So as of today a "current" helmet is an SA-2000 rating and previous is SA-95. IIRC, because of this availability issue, SCCA is going to allow SA-95 helmets through the end of the 2006 season. This is for club racing. Many HPDE's use these same requirements although I do not know for sure what the SCCA specs for their Solo-I and HPDE classes.

For auto-x (again IIRC), the standard is for current and *two* previous. So for this year you should be able to use an SA-90,95 or 2000 rated helmet. I believe that M class helmets are legal for auto-x. I do not know if 90's will get dropped at the end of this season or be extended through 2006.

As always the ultimate call is made by the event organizers.

-bill

 

M helmets are autox legal. You are correct about the current and two previous ratings being legal. The only ones I don't see allowed are generic DOT helmets; they must be M or SA rated.

I'm not completely certain on that one either. I'll probably replace my M95 anyway though.