SFI 45.1 Rollbar pad is rock hard.

[McRat]

So I wrote to SFI to find out what gives:

From: Patrick McSwain [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 1:50 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Roll bar padding.

Greetings,

I just bought a bunch of SFI Approved rollbar pad from Summit Racing. It is about as hard as cured salami. Way more dense that the styrofoam that is inside a SNELL helmet, and several times more dense than normal rollbar pad.

Is this right? I'm afraid in an accident it will cause broken bones or whiplash.

Pat
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Dear Pat,

Thank you for your email. Your question was a common one when the SFI Technical Committee on Roll Bar Padding first developed the Specification 45.1 for this product. However, please be assured that the roll bar padding you have purchased is appropriate protection, and it actually needs to be that hard to absorb the energy and reduce injury when a driver’s helmet impacts it. I have attached an article you might find helpful in understanding how the spec was developed, and why the padding is designed this way. If you have any additional questions, please let us know.

Regards,

Jennifer Faye
Program Manager

[email protected]
SFI Foundation, Inc.
15708 Pomerado Rd., Ste. N208
Poway, CA 92064
USA
(858) 451-8868
(858) 451-9268 Fax
www.sfifoundation.com

 

[Oilfield_Mafia]

Do you think that the harder padding will be only good for one "impact"? like maybe it dents so to speak instead of cushion and come back to its normal shape.. Maybe like the hoods and frontend of most vehicles.. they are designed to crumple to absorb impact.. reckon? if u have any extra of that padding whack a piece of it with a hammer and see what it does..

i dunno..

 

[MMLMM]

Trust me it works, I put a dirt track car in the wall head on, hard enough to shorten the chassis up by a good 12-18 inches. After the belts stretched enough, my helmet hit the padding on the top front bar. Not sure if the normal roll bar padding would have slowed the energy, it prolly would have smashed up and felt like the padding was not even there.