The new season helmets

[MJW]

At this time of year I admit to getting excited about the new season, what will be the colours schemes on rally cars, what recce cars (those Volvos are getting old now) will the teams be using, new racesuits etc. But as RALLYFAN 2003 posted in another thread about Kimi, the new FIA standard 8860 comes in for helmets. As far as I know its only Stilo who make the open face helmet to this standard, and even in full face version only a few helmets, normally associated with F1, (BELL, ARAI, Schuberth etc) make helmets certified to this standard. What will happen to all those Sparco / Peltor / OMP using drivers - will it mean a "control helmet" as well. Noticed Kimi was already using the new Stilo


The Helmet is the new Stilo WRC helmet for 2010. It has a new mic design and it uses a DES visor design. All drivers in 2010 must wear a 8860-2004 certified helmet and this helmet meets this spec. It's probably the only open face rally helmet that meets this standard. The ST4R helmet that Loeb wore in 2009 was believed to be 8860 certified. The ST4R is 8860-2004 certified.

You can buy it at most stores now that sell Stilo helmets.

[ARF]

Sparco will have a helmet to this standard also, should be first half of the year. But so far Stilo has the upper hand.

[MJW]

Sparco will have a helmet to this standard also, should be first half of the year. But so far Stilo has the upper hand.
So all priority drivers must use the 8860 standard helmet, of which Stilo will be the only make ready for the first round in Sweden?

[ARF]

Here's the list: http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.ns ... helmet.pdf (http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/67863983493E256EC1257689006FFFDD/$FILE/L33_Approved_helmet.pdf)
I'd say some Bell models are also suitable for rally.

[rv65]

There is a Stilo ST4R that's not 8860-2004. The ST4R 8860 is 8860-2004 helmet. This FIA spec requires the helmet to be 50 percent stronger than the current helmets.

[rv65]

It would be interesting to see if other companies will make new helmets.

[rv65]

The DES visor is adjustable so the driver/co-driver to reduce the amount of sun light. Why do rally drivers like open face helmets so much?

[AndyRAC]

At this time of year I admit to getting excited about the new season, what will be the colours schemes on rally cars, what recce cars (those Volvos are getting old now) will the teams be using, new racesuits etc. But as RALLYFAN 2003 posted in another thread about Kimi, the new FIA standard 8860 comes in for helmets. As far as I know its only Stilo who make the open face helmet to this standard, and even in full face version only a few helmets, normally associated with F1, (BELL, ARAI, Schuberth etc) make helmets certified to this standard. What will happen to all those Sparco / Peltor / OMP using drivers - will it mean a "control helmet" as well. Noticed Kimi was already using the new Stilo

Have the colour schemes of the cars changed at all though? So Ford have still got that mish-mash of clashing colours.... :dozey:

[MJW]

The DES visor is adjustable so the driver/co-driver to reduce the amount of sun light. Why do rally drivers like open face helmets so much?
.

[MJW]

It would be interesting to see if other companies will make new helmets.


I honestly wonder if they will bother. The cost of R&D and homologation of these helmets must mean a big financial comitment to the helmet manufacturers. Maybe Sparco, just to have an alternative. Somehow I can't see OMP, Bell, etc all trying to make a wrc spec helmet as the number of helmets sold is likely to be small.

[J4MIE]

But surely it will all trickle down from there and become more and more common as more safety measures are introduced further down the rallying tree....

[MJW]

But surely it will all trickle down from there and become more and more common as more safety measures are introduced further down the rallying tree....
To be honest I can not see the 8860 being imposed on "lower categories" as it would drive many away from the sport. It was interesting that IRC haven't adopted the 8860 standard, at present its only for those championships with World in the title. That's not to say that helmet standards will remain the same, but at present for a WRC market I cant see a great rush by helmet manufacturers to develop 8860 helmets.

[rv65]

Hirvonen and Latvala were using helmets very similar to the ones used in 09. So maybe Sparco has an open face rally helmet that is 8860 certified.

[MJW]

No - They too were Stilo, but with a boom microphone not integral into the body of the helmet.

[ARF]

Hirvonen and Latvala used the new Sparco.

[rv65]

Sparco does make a rally helmet that is compatible with the 8860-2004. The ADV-Ji 8860 is the helmet that Latvala, H. Solberg, Hirvonen, and Wilson use in the WRC season.

[rv65]

Stilo and Sparco are the only helmet manufacturers that make an 8860-2004 rally helmet.