Hans Device
It may look cumbersome, but this system may just save your neck
It’s a very comfortIng feeling, glancing up at the heavy-duty roll cage as the pit crew pulls your straps tight, pushing you back into the hugging carbonfibre seat frame. the pressure across your ears as you adjust your helmet. the muffling pop of the visor coming down. a pat on the shoulder, the door shuts. you’re good to go – you feel as safe as houses.
But perhaps that feeling is a little misleading. make no mistake, safety in the old war horses is way beyond what it was back in the day; if you’re going to hit something in a racing car, now’s the time to do it. the harnesses alone are better – it seems that no way will your body move out of that seat. and that’s true, it won’t. But your head might.
although your body is firmly strapped in, your head and neck are unsupported and free to move in the event of a crash. a driver’s helmet also increases the weight of the head and adds to any pendulum momentum. In extreme circumstances, the sudden deceleration causes the head to flex rapidly forward and down, thereby causing fractures to the base of the skull and/or the upper cervical vertebrae. really not good.
Words rob scorah
Luckily, there’s a simple way to avoid all this; a Head and neck support system (that’s a Hans device when you go to look for one on google shopping).
the device consists of a carbonfibre collar which fits under the shoulder straps of the safety harness. the helmet is then loosely connected to the collar via a tether at each side. (any fIa-approved helmet will do fine.) the head can move freely under normal circumstances, but, in the event of a frontal crash, the collar is locked in place by the tightening harness and the amount of helmet deflection is controlled by the tethers.
the amount of energy absorbed by a driver’s skull and neck is dramatically reduced. the helmet’s loading is also transferred from the more vulnerable base of the skull to the forehead, which, in the case of most classic racers, has been toughened by years of nutting opposing football fans, business rivals, fellow drivers and traffic wardens.
so, any objections? on a medical, cost or engineering basis that has to be a big no. the worst that could be said about the Hans device when it started to appear was that it made the driver look like a cross between a gladiator, frankenstein’s monster and Darth vader. they’re even a lot more comfortable than they used to be. and they’ll fit almost any cockpit.
But classic – often slightly older – racers can be a funny lot. younger drivers accept new technology and new safety equipment quite readily. But we lot…?
our dads fought and flew in the war; their philosophy, dispensed with a raised eyebrow and another cigarette was: ‘If a bullet has your name on it…’ We’ve watched test pilot chuck yeager walking away from a burning crash in therightstuff, bruised but unbowed. We look at the pictures of our racing heroes in their paper-thin overalls in bare, open cockpits. again the stiff-lipped defiance. We want to be like them: men who drove Le mans alone – all of it – in just their underpants.
But, my brave boys, remember also the few news photos of racing wives, snapped the moment after they realised where the ambulance on track was heading. so get fitted up for a Hans device, look like Darth vader, and give the kids and grandkids a laugh.