Hi Folks,
Once again a good discussion and one that all owners and drivers of these type of vehicles should pay attention to.
If you will go to
JBL , The first photo is a JBL at the track.
You will notice that behind the drivers head is the crossbar/seatbelt mount that JBL uses for the Single bar. This bar mounts a head impact pad/restraint as well as the seatbelts.
Now, you all may notice that the impact pad is not installed. This is not good. In a rearward impact, not only would your head contact the alloy bar, but due to the large space between the head and the bar, you would hyper-extend your spinal column. (the pad is 8 inches thick and made from sorbathane)
The point that I am trying to make here is this:
No matter what you design as a safety measure or piece of equipment as part of a safety system, You have to get people to use the whole system.
On the cars that have the forward brace, it is very important that proper impact absorbing material be put in the areas where one may contact the bar in a accident. So far, I have had a hell of time getting folks to do this. Just like the pad on the crossbar.
The reason is always that they do not like the way they look.
I have the same problem with brake pads, the Polymatrix A pads are much better than the D's. But they make your wheels dirty. Therefore, customers would rather have clean wheels then great brakes.
Once again, vehicles are comprised of systems, The systems need to be complete to operate correctly.