Hans device... why aren't you guys running one? (Page 1 of 3)

Yup, a driver broke his neck at Infineon this year in an accident during the "Sears Pointless" event. Had he had a HANS, I dare say he would have been ok. $700 is cheap insurance from a seroius head/neck injury.

We are running a HANS with the sliding teather. I'll never go back to the collar.

Its not the low "price" option but it is the low "cost" option in my book.

+1

We ran our first race at NPR in Louisiana with the HANS, and the sliding tether option rocked the house.  I could see just fine, I was less hot, I felt safer and driver changes were just as fast (or slow, in our case).  There was NO downside.

I'm not sure a HANS would have prevented the neck injury earlier this year.  Some questions exist around the timing of the injury: did it occur on impact or when he was getting out of the car while upside down.  If the injury occurred during the impact, a HANS might have been very useful.  If the injury occurred while the driver was dropping himself out of the seat to get out of the flaming car, not so much.

Either way, I <heart> my HANS.

I would imagine the foam neck braces are actually better at protecting against compression injury.  Its the 'whiplash' type that hans are better at.  If you have enough roof clearance and tight enough harnesses, the compression injury should be fairly hard to incur.  Right now honestly for me its just a $$ thing, but as we plan on doing more and more events, the hans becomes more and more practical looking

I had such a hard time turning my neck in the collar that the side mirrors were unusable. With the HANS I can turn my head freely. My opinion is that I'm a safer driver with the HANS than with the collar. I have plenty of friends that have hit things HARD with their HANS and have walked away with nothing. They may have been as well off with a collar, I don't know. I'm happy with my decision though and won't be going back. Its so much more comfortable and based on the info I have equally if not better in protecting your kneck in a collision.

Strictly my opinion...

But if you're trapped in a fire, you won't pull off anything. I've been there and almost strangled myself on radio leads trying to get out in a hurry....ripped my suit wide open when it hung up on the door frame and I didn't even notice until I got back to the pits. When the instinct kicks in, it takes a cooler head than mine to think about unhooking stuff when the oxygen runs out...that's my only concern about HANS...can you get out in a hurry?

We used the Hans for the first time last weekend. The sliding tethers work just fine. You can't put a dollar amount on the extra protection.

<flame suit on>

You can't?  Well the vendor sure as hell can. 

My biggest gripe with HANS is IMO is they are price gouging.  Hold your helmet in one hand and your HANS in the other.  OK, now how much did the helmet cost?  $350-$400?  Do you think it cost more to build a HANS than a helmet?  No freaking way, so why is it TWICE the price?  Don't give me that crap about the cost of R&D because they recovered that from F1 long ago, if not I'm sure by now from they have from NASCAR. 

You can say you can't put a price on safety, but I can point you to a whole list of people who can, and do.

I can't say I won't ever get a H&N restraint, but when I do it will be from another vendor besides HANS.

A couple of us on our team use the R3. Its a little easier to use in an offroad car since thats what we do most of the time and it works well in the Lemons cars too:

http://www.pciraceradios.com/ProductDet … 8695703041

They have a less expensive version thats plastic instead of carbon and its the same thing otherwise:
http://www.pciraceradios.com/ProductDet … 1139665921

That's the same price as a HANS (if you don't get the $50 sliding mounts).

Did you ever get an official word from Jay if he allows it in Lemons?

while I agree that $700 is a bit of money, when you break it down it really isn't that bad.

It's a device that promises to prevent your neck from breaking and this is America. I bet at least $200 from every sale goes to lawyers. next, it's FIA certified. I bet there is a royalty payment for each device they sell.

Next there's the volume issue. there's a heck of a lot less of these sold than helmets. this significantly affect price.

There's also a retail merchant in the chain of purchase. that's another 20-40% off the top (35% is a normal average)

While I'd be happier if it would have been in the $500 range, the price is what it is and I'm fine with it. you're welcome to do what you want with your neck, it doesn't affect me.