Christmas is here….

by Darren on Dec.26, 2009, under Build

…. and unlike normal people I ask for money to go towards something for the rally car. As you may know, for any International-status events from the beginning of 2009, it became compulsory to use a HANS device; if you’ve seen Formula 1 in the last few years you’ll have seen the drivers with these on, a thing that sits on their shoulders and stops the helmet and head from over-flexing the neck and damaging the skull in the case of a head-on accident. An admirable safety device, but there are a couple of problems.

Firstly, the cost. The original carbon fibre device is about £800. The “cheap” device is still nearly £500, despite being injection moulded; due to the way the FIA works, there is no choice, and a captive market, so there is little chance of the device being made cheaply. So that’s the first issue, although one that we hope to get around by hiring them if we do any more International events.

The second one is also cost-based. While the inventors of the HANS device are happy for people to add the anchors to their own helmets (and it only involves drilling two holes; while the loads involved may be a lot for our necks, they are not for a mechanical device), the FIA do not allow this. Which means buying a new helmet, having to replace a perfectly good one with a new one. Once you see the price of HANS-equipped helmets, it becomes clear that for the extra money you’d need to spend, you may as well get the best, and get a Peltor HANS helmet, such as the G78 I bought back in September. I’ve worn it twice; once at Rallyday and once while in Tony Hawkins’ Audi.

Peltor G78

This was £385, but it is a fantastic helmet. I had to send the first one back (a size 60) to Peter Lloyd Rallying, and they changed it for a 62 by return (fantastic service as ever from PLR, while still being massively cheaper than places like Demon Tweeks), and it fits like a glove. The problem was that this isn’t the end of the story; the intercom system used in this helmet is different to the low-spec OMP system that I have. I was considering making up an adapter and using my intercom until I navigated in Tony’s car; the difference was night and day. So, time to buy a Peltor amplifier.

Despite being a fairly simple device, these are not cheap. The old model just had a single control on it for volume, but a new model (the FMT120) has just been released, and offers individual volume controls and a lovely LED. Most importantly, it is well built and offers the same noise-free performance. The downside? It’s £170, even from Peter Lloyd. So I bought one and asked for money for Christmas to go towards it.

Peltor FMT120 Intercom

Oh, but of course we’re not finished there. Paul’s not in a position to splurge £400 on a new helmet at the moment, so instead I decided to convert his helmet to use a Peltor headset. The downside is that is was £90 for the mic, earpieces and cabling. The upside is that it was fairly easy to fit; obviously I can’t drill the helmet to suit the new intercom, so I’ve spent this morning making up a plate to mate the helmet and headset together. The end result is this:

Peltor headset fitted neatly to OMP helmet

Are we done?

No. Because of the placement in the car (in front of us instead of on the rollcage which is not reachable when strapped in), the cables need to be extended, and I don’t want to butcher my lovely new intercom. Unlike everyone else’s intercoms, Peltor use military-spec connectors, made by a company called Nexus. Who only sell in quantities of 500+! On the upside, they have a European distributor who are a little more friendly to normal people. Even more of an upside was that they were in Upton, about 6 miles from my house. It got better – I phoned them, spoke to a helpful woman called Ellie who said they only had 2 in stock (a rarity), but actually went to check that they really did have them. Half an hour later, I picked them up. But of course, there’s a punchline, and anyone who’s bought anything that’s military spec will know what it is: