SA is not going to be any safer in a non roll bar car then a MA. In a car with a rollbar maybe. Concrette is pretty hard stuff. Much harder then the inside of a car. The MA is designed to hit concrett. This is what I would do. It's 2004. They tend to rate helmets in 5 year increments. 1995,2000 (I heard that there was a 98 but I am not sure). I would try to get by with out buying one for a year if possible. Get a nice fire retardant helmet sock and borrow a helmet. Then when/if the 2005 rated helmets come out get one of those. Get a SA helmet just to be on the safe side as far as your investment is concerned. If NASA and the others switch to a SA rating then it’s just better to be prepared. I own a MA2000 open face helmet. I use it for HPDE’s. I bought it primarily for autocrossing. My next helmet will be a SA closed face helmet. I would still use the MA open face for autocrossing because I prefer the open face for that and autocrossing is really pretty safe.

You don't need a shield, collar or anything else. I bought a collar because my neck gets sore as a passenger. Never happens when I drive but always from the passenger seat.

 

Suggested reading http://www.smf.org/faqs.html
There are links to the Snell standards. The FAQ at least is worth taking a few minutes and reading over. If you are more interested, there are links to more reading.

Bottom line is if you plan to never do any more than autocross then an M-rated helmet is perfectly fine. But if you are thinking that maybe your enjoyment of this hobby might take you to some full sized race tracks, then spend the extra $'s and get an SA rated helmet. Many schools will not require them, but why worry about which schools require them and which ones don't. An SA helmet is going to be good for all of them.

In an autocross most cars only roll over once when there is the extremely rare occassion that this happens. There are astronomically rare occasions where this is not the case, but usually once is all there is. The main protective difference between the M standard and the SA standard is the performance of the helmet on multiple impacts. This comes into play above autocross speeds. At a race track when there is a rollover it is very likely there will be more than one flip. In this case you want the multiple impact performance of the SA helmet.

Full face vs open face.... this is the endless debate. I think there is little doubt that the full face helmet gives more protection than the open face helmet. With that said, there are still plenty of people (me included) that still use open face helmets. I accept the added risk. I now only do track events. When I raced wheel to wheel and felt like the incident of accidents was much higher than I currently see. I had a full face helmet.

Read these SUGGESTIONS and do some more research on your own and make the decision you are willing to be responsible for in the event something bad happens.....

With that said. Helmets are a little bit of a status symbol around any race track. If you wear jeans from Family Dollar then you might think the dapartment store helmet might be cool enough....

 

Well said.

 

I wear glasses too, and I had the best luck with a Bell SR-Pro helmet. But of course, YMMV

 

isnt the M rated helmets designed for only 1 crucial impact, while the SA rated helmets are designed for multipleimpacts (head bouncing around in a car w/ a cage). SOrry didn't read the link

 

I have always worn sunglasses when I race with a closed face helmet. I have never had a problem with the glasses in any of the helmets. I don't think there will be a problem with anything except maybe the helmets designed for drag racers or formula cars. I always removed the glasses before removing the helmet, and always put on the helmet first then the glasses through the opening and never had a problem. YMMV.
Yes... exactly.

 

i wear sunglasses in the helmets that are provided b/c my eyes are sensitive to light. so glasses are easy to wear w/ it, some aren't. the best i've used has the flexable ear parts.