I’m looking to buy a Simpson hybrid hans device for karting, I was just wondering how much safer it is than just a foam neck brace, also if you have had one please let me know how much you like it, or if you don’t like it at all 
Thanks
These are for cars, not karts. The HANS device protects against basilar skull fracture by eliminating whiplash type accidents, completely unrelated to the neck/collarbone injuries you typically get in a kart, that a foam ring or Leatt-style restraint is supposed to prevent.
A HANS-type device doesn’t do anything in a kart because you are not strapped in and not subject to extreme decelerations from an impact.
Rules on neck protectors are to prevent hyperextension of your neck (research is iffy on if they actually work in this way or not), or to prevent your helmet from contacting your collarbones in a roll-over accident, which can easily break them.
1 Like
There is a debate thread here on neck braces. I’ll see if I can find.
I think consensus is something along the lines of: not sure if neck braces for karting do much, but it can’t hurt. Also, a lot of series mandate them.
1 Like
That wont work for karting, nothing to attach the restraints to. Head area injuries tend to be collar bone in karting. EVS r4 is a nice middle ground if one still wants to feel like their neck is protected. light, cheap-ish, and not intrusive. Theres very little data that I know of about how much neck protectors and foam donuts do in karting, which is pretty telling. splurge on a helmet and a rib protector instead of that hans thing
What’s the lightest-duty, least-protective mini-donut available? I’m not convinced they’re even useful for collarbone injuries - it’s the bending moment that’ll break them rather than a concentrated shear force - but I’m required to run something.
I think we should go for coolest looking as a factor, then. I sorta like the EVS ones, look wise. I also thought the Leatt had a cool vibe.
I guessed what confused me was the fact that it straps to your body, I thought that could be an alternative instead of using the seatbelts
Unless you have a car helmet you don’t have HANS posts in the helmet to attach it either. There’s a reason karting helmets don’t have HANS attachment points.
Dom,
I’ve got a throat/helmet/suit/chest combination that has me getting throttled when I use my EVS R4 - if there’s something slimmer & more compressible it would help.
Thanks everyone for all the help!!!
If you’re looking for protection from flexing your neck in a wreck look at the Leatt and 360 devices. Again not a lot of testing on them in karting but Leatt makes neck devices for motocross to protect riders falling off bikes at speed.
1 Like
I’m surprised at the push back on neck protectors. A kart flips, and paralysis is a real possibility. This last winter, we had a 60 year old shifter driver with a Leatt brace flip upside down, landing head first (top of helmet) quickly followed by the (now upside down) top of the seat hitting him in the back. Broken scapula, a few broken ribs – and ZERO neck injury. I won’t leave home without one – and hope to wear it but never use it. Are they as comfortable as not wearing one? Nope. But then, I don’t go out on the track with sun glasses and no helmet 'cause it’s more comfortable.
The pushback is largely due to the lack of empirical data to show that they help and if so, how. FIA performed testing at one point and felt that it was not worthwhile to mandate them.
A massive swing in the protection offered across models and no clear standard being set only adds to the confusion.
1 Like
There are just as many cases where someone without a neckbrace flips and has no neck injury. The fact is that there is no evidence or at least not enough that says they help people. I believe the FIA did some testing, and the outcome was that there was no mandate
There are flips and there are flips. We have a very fast local racer who was on a regular road course doing over 100 mph when he went off and hit a rock, resulting in 2 cartwheels before he came out of his seat. Wearing 0 neck protection. Significantly beat up, but back playing varsity high school football the following week. I used the example of the 60 year old shifter driver since it was about as pure a head plant as I’ve ever heard of. The 60 year old was at fault; the guy he hit is a lung transplant surgeon (who got to him about as fast as the EMT). The surgeon wears a Leatt and said (and I quote) “Thank god for Leatt”. I’ve looked at others, but then clamp my OLD Leatt around my even OLDER neck (79 and counting), and off we go – hoping not to be a test case.
1 Like
I have nothing against neck braces, I wear one, (i have to) but there has been testing and there has been studies of crashes and the results were negligible. If it really made a difference the FIA would mandate it. If any neck brace is going to help the leatt is probably the most likely. there are also arguments that they can make injuries worse, as they can act as a lever and inflict more tension into your neck during a crash.
I have always been pretty safety conscious. I had HANS before SCCA required. I had a head surround as soon as available in Spec Racer Ford, and had halo in Spec Miata. I still am not convinced the kart collar does much. I wear EVS, and think it may help with collar bone. I head planted pretty hard in my 30s. Tore up helmet. Also broke gauge and bent steering wheel, broke rim, bent axle, and wore pretty good holes in both my knees and left elbow. No neck injury. All that means is, I had no neck injury.
Two weeks later is when I knew I would be a racer for life. Heading into the same corner behind the same competitor, not yet healed up, and in my helmet I said “lets rock an roll”
If I thought I needed more protection I would look at the motocross stuff. I still may
1 Like