Safety First...

[Fiat Racer Don]

Safety First‚¦‚¦‚¦

‚¦some thoughts on an often neglected side of performance car adventures.

We are all lucky to have the GCRE site where we can find answers to our mechanical and tuning problems. Guy Croft is commended for making this forum available and more providing guidance that he really should be charging for. Recently, a new category for posts on Car Preparation was added that I think shows his commitment to the total aspect of competition cars.

For those that race, we spend great amounts of time and money getting a few more horsepower, finding a few more RPMs, putting the right cooling and oiling bits in our cars. We use the best tires for the conditions we are racing. This post, is from a different perspective. That perspective has become all too real to me recently.

Simply‚¦it is about safety equipment and preparation. How well do we prep our cars? How good is the focus and our investment in this critical aspect?

About 4 weeks ago I found out. I crashed my 1972 Fiat Spider at a prestigious Vintage event at Road America in Elkhart Lake WI. This is the same course where DeMatta struck a deer and where Alexandra Legge destroyed her Champ Car 2 weeks ago. I lost my car at the same corner she did.

I will keep the details short. I lost the rear of the car in a turn called the Kink. The Kink is labeled as the most dangerous turn in a North American road racing. This is a very high speed turn with a unique layout that requires perfect entry and exit. I was not able to control the car, it spun and went head on into a concrete wall. I was traveling in excess of 90mph the safety crew estimated.

I was knocked out. I hurt my hands as I tore the steering wheel from the hub on impact. I had some rib bruising from the belts and a pretty good smack to my lower back. My right leg took a beating. I was transported to the ER by safety crews. After many hours of tests, I was released to be transported home. I was lucky.

I have thought about why I was not seriously injured or possibly killed. My faith leads me to believe in some divine intervention. But I believe it was also my focus during the preparation of the car on safety. I promised my wife I would invest in the best safety equipment out there. I want to share what I have learned in the hope it will perhaps help a forum member to re-examine their car.

First thing is plan for the worse. I am a confident driver and would never have thought I would wreck my car. You just don¢ž¢t know who or what will cause you to spin off track. Even after seeing the video of the crash, the Driver¢ž¢s Committee of my sanctioning body, can¢ž¢t tell me why it slid out.

Here are some thoughts. This preparation save me in many different ways. I owe a huge amount of thanks to my friend and mechanic Yves Boode of HistoricRaceCars, LLC in Illinois. He schooled me in changes to my car this off-season. Thanks to his diligence I was able to survive the impact.

1. Invest in safety: Do not make it an after-thought. It is not something your sanctioning body …œmakes you do.‚ It is something you want to do. Don¢ž¢t minimize, maximize your investment.
a. If you are required to have a 2-layer suit, get a 3 layer. Gives you precious extra seconds in case of a fire at a nominal marginal cost.
b. Get the best helmet. Cheap helmets belong on cheap heads. If you don¢ž¢t value your noggin, the helmet is a great place to shave costs.
c. Wear a balaclava even if your sanctioning bodies do not require it.
d. Acquire high top quality racing boots. I jammed my right foot into the foot well at impact and the high top saved me some ankle injuries.

2. Head and Neck Devices: I was spared a serious or fatal neck injury because I used a head and neck device. All the key pro series require one, mainly the HANS; F1, ALMS, CART, IRL, NASCAR. They work and they save lives. These are not cheap but like a helmet, if your neck and life are not worth it, it is a great place to cut costs. They are now about $800USD, unless you have a 19‚ neck like I do and need a custom unit made for $1200USD. There are varieties ¢‚¬Å“ HANS, R3, ISAACS and HUTCHEONS. They all have flaws and strong points‚¦just pick one and get one.

3. Arm Restraints: They are required for open cars in the States. If you have an enclosed car, use them. They will keep your arms from flailing and smacking some hard surface in your car.

4. Seat Mounting: Don¢ž¢t use seat sliders. Bolt your seat where it needs to be permanently. I have witnessed injuries when seat sliders break loose on impact and the driver is tossed about. Your seat needs to be bolted in 6 places, four in the floor and two to your roll cage at a minimum. Use very large washers on the under or back side of the seat to ensure you do not rip the bolts through the floor or seat on impact. This is especially critical if you use fiberglass shell seats. My washers were deformed but held.

5. Roll cage: Ensure you have a sanctioned roll bar. Weld it to the car. Bolt in bars have no place in a race car. Additionally, I learned this tip at the expense of a fellow racer. Ensure you have, after you are belted in place, over two inches of roll bar main hoop above your head. I witnessed a rollover. The racer was not adequately under the bar and he was injured pretty badly. The extra height provides tolerance if the bar is crushed, or you roll in soft soil and the bar buries itself. You won¢ž¢t have as much fun in a wheelchair as a race car. If you do not have that clearance inside a sedan, cut the floor boards and lower your seat.

6. Seats: ¢‚¬Å“ get structural integrity: There are a number of seat manufactures that make ‹Å“racing style seats¢ž¢ that are comfortable, cushy and inexpensive. Be sure you have an FIA approved seat from manufacturers like Stand 21, Kirkey, and Sparco. Fire protective covering is also needed. Get one with rib and shoulder protection. Head protection is also a good idea to keep your head from bouncing side to side. I lacked this. It was the whipping action from my head returning back from its forward suspended HANS position and striking the roll bar that knocked me out.

7. Seat Belt mounting: This is critical. If you visit the HANS site, you will find technical literature on how to mount the belts to the car. Many folks loop the shoulder belts down from the shoulders to the attachment point much lower than at a height parallel to the top of the shoulders. If you use a HANS this is even more critical. You don¢ž¢t want it to loop downward behind the seat. This will provide severe injuries to your cervical vertebrae and disks from compression. You want to be held to the seat in the shoulder areas, not down in the seat from your shoulders. The lap and submarine belts are to hold you in the seat.

8. Roll bar padding: Use the very dense FIA approved padding. This is sold in half rolls and is glued to the bars. The denser the better. Use the hammer test on your padding. Hit it firmly with a hammer. If you get a metallic ding, no matter how slight. Your head or body will not be protected as you will compress the padding and impart energy from the bar to you. My concussion would have been more severe had I kept the softer padding in use prior to this year.

9. Crash Etiquette: This is a personal learning. Many of the cars we race are older and constructed before manufactures put crumple zones in them. This is true on an early Fiat Spider.
a. When you know you will strike something, mainly head on, remove your hands from the steering wheel. This will limit injuring your hands as you break the steering wheel or get your thumbs hooked and broken if the wheel twists sharply.
b. Let you legs go limp. I know ¢‚¬Å“ …œeasy says, hard does.‚ What happens when you go ‹Å“clutch and brake to the firewall¢ž¢ on impact is the wall imparts tremendous energy to the car. Since the car does not destroy itself like a modern purpose built race car, the energy is transferred to your stiff legs. That energy proceeds up your legs pinning your hips hard in the seat at the same time inertia moves the trunk of your body forward. However small, this forward body movement stresses the L5/S1 lumbar junction and causes some nasty soft tissue injuries. If your safety belts are not tight to the point you can just breathe, your body can move forward more and this is where you rupture disks or fracture hips or vertebrae.
c. Finally, be sure that you pull the pin on your fire system before leaving the grid. This goes for both handheld bottles and fire systems. The last thing you want to do in a car fire is to be fighting to remove the safety pin so you can activate the system.

I do hope this is of some value. I have tried to provide insights and my opinions on safety that are reasonable.

Best wishes,
Don Tuscany
USA

_________________
Don Tuscany
1972 124 Spider Vintage EProd Racer - 1.6L (destroyed)
1971 124 Spider Historic FProd - Resto Job

[Guy Croft]

MODEL POST!

Hello Don

it's not easy to write such an article after a massive crash. However, you have generously written for the benefit of all and well done indeed. I commend you for the content and style of the post and the extent to which you have detailed the safety issues.

Please feel free to illustrate - with a photo - the severity of the impact, but if you wish only. I've seen it so I am very aware of how much the careful preparation by you and Yves helped.

GC

[JB]

I am involved in vehicle safety and you make some very good points especially number 9 about making your legs go limp and getting them away from the bulkhead. But as you say this can be easier said than done, however there are techniques that can help.

I am talking about visulisation. You practice the crash routine in your mind. This would ideally be done in the car when you are relaxed but can be done anywhere. What you do is imagine exactly what you would do in the event of a crash. Then if it does actually ever happen you have a "program" in your mind and you know what to do. It should be a natural reaction.

Inner Speed Secrets by Ross Bentley and Ronn Langford is a book that explains these technigues and others in details and is a very good read.

I am glad you are OK,

John