Hi,
As mentioned, for Auto and Track purposes, be sure to get an SA rated Helmet and be sure it's SA05 rated. The Snell Foundation reviews and upgrades their Testing Protocol every 5 yrs. and some venues require the most current rating. This way, your Helmet will be accepted for the next 2.5 yrs until the SA10 ratings come out. Some venues allow both the current and the last
SA ratings to be used. So, you could use an
SA05 or
SA00 rated Helmet. But, in 2010 the
SA00 Rating will no longer be acceptable. So be sure to check the venues you expect to be paticipating in.
The Snell Foundation grants these ratings after randomly buying Helmets on the retail market and testing them in their own labs. If they find a Helmet which fails, the Mfgr is required to make corrective changes to design, materials or manufacturing techniques to maintain their
SA rating. DOT, ANSI and ASTM rated Helmets are not independently tested. The Mfgr merely certifies that the Helmet conforms to the DOT requirements. While they may do actual testing, they are not required by the DOT to do on-going, continuous, testing.
An 'M' rated Helmet is for Motorcycle use. An SA rated Helmet is for Motorsports.
The primary differences are:
- SA standard requires flammability test while the M standard does not;
SA standard allows narrower visual field than M standard (Most SA helmets may not be street legal);
SA standard has rollbar impact test while M standard does not.
In addition, an '
M' rated Helmet is tested for a
single impact. They are generally less robust and easily compromised. If an '
M' rated Helmet is dropped or otherwise severly impacted, it is considered compromised and should be replaced. An
SA rated Helmet is subjected to multiple impacts because that's the type of environment it is expected to perform in. Hope this helps...
Happy Motoring!... Jim'99
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