Page 22 - KCRPCA March-April

right position due to the harnesses. With an OEM DOT belt, your body will ex away from the collapsing roof. This is one of my pet peeves to see, and most clubs have outlawed harness bars for this reason. One nal point here...... Porsche club requires the same safety equipment for the driver and the instruc- tor of the vehicle. I.E., if you have a rac- ing seat and harnesses on the driver side, your instructor must have the same level of safety equipment on the passenger side.
Self explanatory - right! Helmets are typically good for 10 years. Right now, helmets with an SA rating (not M for motorcycle) can be 2010 or 2015 pro- duction dates.
5. Positive battery
connections not
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Mar / Apr 2018
Photos by Karl Wilen
4. Outdated Equipment:
Window nets, seats, harnesses, and your head and neck device all have expi- ration dates! These dates always sneak up on us as we tend to forget how many seasons we have had the equipment in- stalled. Harnesses can be anywhere from 2 years to 4-5 years depending on if SFI or FIA rated. Window nets and seats are typically 5 years. A seat can have a seat back brace installed after 5 years and continued to be ran provided the seat is still in good shape. IMHO, your seat will be incredibly nasty after 5 years of racing.....replace it. Helmets!
Often we nd no cover over the positive terminal of your battery, kill switches, etc. These all need to be covered per the rules. It can be a plastic cover or rubber from the factory or af- termarket. Sometimes aftermarket bat- teries are installed, and in those cases, I like to use liquid electrical tape. It can be found at any parts store and goes on as a liquid and will harden into a plastic like material to protect those oddball terminals.
6. Fire Systems:
Invest in a good re system for your race car. A handheld re bottle may get you by for an HPDE type scenario in your daily driver street car, but a race car should have a fully integrated system. Pray you never have to use it, but yank- ing the handle as you are diving out of the car in case of re is a lot easier than trying to unclasp a re bottle, etc. Re- member, re doesn’t start slow; it typi- cally ashes into a ball of ame and you just will not have time to react. The re system isn’t there to put out the re, in- stead it is there to keep it at bay enough to buy you an extra couple of seconds to get out of the car without injury. Once you are out, the corner workers can hit the re with their big bottles. Make sure the nozzles are installed per the manu- facturer, lines are free from any kinks, and the bottle is fully charged! These should also be inspected every couple
covered: