fatbillybob

Someone posted this on another thread:"snip... NASA HPDE'r that broke his C1 and C2 in a wreck at hyperfest. Luckily he hasnt suffered any problems from the injury, but it couldve easily been worse. A race seat and proper restraints wouldve saved his neck. He says that during the impact his head traveled all the way to the passenger seat."

The cheapest money you will ever spend in racing is installing sidenets left and right. These nets are like $20 to $100 each. Sidenets have been proven and the research data is available at SAE.org scientific papers. I found a couple of good places to anchor your sidenets if you guys with dual use streetcars are running with a rear 4 pt. rollhoop. Here are some pictures of some good C5 anchor points clearly seen with dashpad off.

a low front anchor point can be had on the lower "A" piller support see the bolt sticking out there.


This is the highest point on the "A" piller where you can screw in an anchor for the upper part of a window net. All you have to do is remove the "A" piller fascia and do some modification to place a window net anchor along the "A" piller.



a high right side net front anchor can be found just about smack center under the dashpad. There is a threaded bolt coming straight up.


Of course nothing is better than a dedicated cage but dual use guys travel just as fast and should think about as much protection as your compromises allow.

rasrboy

Very nice of you to pass that along. Good stuff!

Aaron

wallyman424

yup, a right side net would probably have helped that guy out. the only problems with left side nets and hpde's are point by's.

ghoffman

Teamtech has a side net that does not require any mods to the car. It looks weird but it works very well. The auto companies use it for testing their cars at the test tracks. Here it is in my C6Z:


How it works is that it goes over the roof and is held in by closing the door on the straps with the rope like bead outside of the door on the bottom. As you open the door, it is automatically released so you can get out. And although I don't have much experience giving point by's (just kidding!) it has adequate space to do so.

Dolfan

For someone who doesn't know, what do the side net do for you? I know it is a safety device but what does it do and protect?

wallyman424

theyre supposed to limit the lateral movement of your head/neck/body. lets say you slide into a tire wall on your right side at 80mph, your body is going to be pushed towards the passenger seat. A right side net will catch it and limit the movement.

ctk30

Kind of what a containment seat does right?



I think I may add a side net now, I never really knew they were important

wallyman424

exactly. if you can get a seat with a halo system for your head, thats even better.

Falcon

The problem with halo/containment seats is ingress/egress.

Imagine the car is on fire and you have to climb through a small hole in the door that is made even smaller with a head bolster attached to the seat.

On the right/passenger side of the driver it's not too big a deal, but on the left side, it can be a real show stopper.

mountainbiker2

Can you show some pictures with both side nets installed? I'm a little confused where you would mount the left net. Also, is there any write up on removing the dash pad.

thanks,
Steve

Hans Delbruck

Side nets keep your arms/hands inside the car in the event of a rollover. When the car impacts something your arms go flying without restraints. I've seen a rollover in which the car flipped more than once and rolled on the driver's hand, crushing the bones... side nets would have prevented that.

That is a neat system Gary, thanks for the heads up.

kentz06

I use nets in the race car but have nothing for the Z. Has anyone used wrist straps like they use in open cockpit cars? Pros and cons?

BTW it can happen. Two years ago a local surgen lost an arm in a roll over incident.

Dean

the blur

is it possible to do a 1/2 containment seat?
I have the kirkey delux road racing seat, can I add on 1 halo on the right side of the seat?

abc 123

How many times have you seen a car on fire at a HPDE?

sleeper02Z06

You know, I hear this question many times. I've seen it once. Even if I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't care. It will only take one time, and that one time is gonna SUCK if you have a hard time getting out. Much like the "no glove" arguement......

Joe

Falcon

4 times. Once at CMP in 2005, once at VIR, I think it was 2005, once at Mid Ohio last July, and at VIR last week.

Doggone, until you mentioned it, I didn't think it was too frequently.

RusherRacing

I seen a vette catch fire last year at MAM during a NASA event.

Also a good friend just burned up his Turbo'd V6 Camaro at the Drag Strip a couple weeks ago... 11's in a v6 is too damn fast it decided to blow an oil line and spray the manifold... It is going full race now..

I have ran Side nets on my old race car but wasn't planning on it for the Z06. I like the stock interior... However after seeing that whole car net thing I might look into one of those might be a good compromie between safety on the track and daily street driven...

fatbillybob

The teamtech net looks pretty good but my fear is that in a crash it could get displaced. If it it tested fine by me. It is better than no net. Nets contain your body. People always think HANS will save you but they function 100% in forward crashes and the efficiency of the HANS drops off as the hit gets more angular until there is very little to no help in a 100% R or L crash. An uncertified by SFI device the Isacc is a very good deveice and perfect for dual use cars that has protection 360 degrees for the head and neck. It is not certifiable because it fails the single release point rules but passes all sled tests. Halo seats are the best but do limit ingress egress and vision but are safest. You should still have side nets with halo seats because your belts can stretch a foot or more in a crash and you can be partly ejected from a halo seat. Nets are your last line of defence in a crash. You are less likely to have ejection problems in a properly bolted seat which means seats attached to roll cages not floor of car. But that is just not possible for dual use cars. And as to fire....I caught on fire once so it is not to be discounted...and I have unfortunately tested all my safety equipment in a crash too. Seats with halos can bend and break in crashes and so that's why you need nets. In my one crash I bent my custom made ultrashield road race super seat which cost $1500 about 4" in the hip and thigh area and tweeked the upper shoulder and head bolster as I slid into a wall on my left side and that seat was bolted in 8 places to the cage not the floor of the car. So take safety seriously when you design your compromises. Dual use is a reality and you guys need to draw your own lines on how safe you are going to build. But please remember how dumb it will look on your tombstone, "Died because he did not want to drill a small hole in the dashpad of his Z06".

ctk30

You can get one of these head supports

http://www.pitstopusa.com/detail.aspx?ID=10622

abc 123

Which is why you should run a fire suppression system, no matter what!