Impact Attenuation Press Release: New Auto Racing Safety Devices Have Broad Potential

08/27/96

New Auto Racing Safety Devices Offer Life Saving and Injury Reduction
Potential


MOSPORT, Ontario, Aug. 23 -- Four innovations from the
inventor of highway safety barriers may save drivers from serious or
fatal injury. In development since 1994, they include a number of
practical and relatively inexpensive energy-absorbing devices:

A cluster of energy absorbing "cushions" that can decelerate a
racing car from 100 mph to a stop in 30 feet.

A displaceable guardrail that actually moves with the impact of a
racing car.

A tire wall, with the tires behind the guardrail.

A cocoon-like seat that wraps around and protects the driver, and
includes a helmet tether and crash-absorbing seat mount.

The Federation Internationale de L'Automobile (F.I.A.) -- which
sanctions all Formula One races, the Daytona 24-Hour endurance race,
World Championship rallies and other motorsports events worldwide --
has expressed an active interest in these designs.

Creation of the devices was motivated by the deaths of Ayrton Senna
and Roland Ratzenberger at the San Marino course in Italy. The devices
were initially developed for road racing courses, specifically those
on the international calendar for Formula One events. However, the
concepts could be adapted for American road courses, oval tracks, drag
strips, with highway versions as well, and by race sanctioning
organizations that include IndyCar, NASCAR, IMSA, SCCA, and NHRA.

The inventor is John Fitch, whose Fitch Intertial Barriers -- the
yellow, sand-filled barrels you see in front of bridge abutments --
have saved thousands of lives on America's highways. His 18-year
racing career has included a GT-class win in the Mille Miglia and
overall wins in World Championship events at Sebring and the Tourist
Trophy in Ireland, driving with Stirling Moss on the Mercedes
team. Fitch later became a consultant for race course designs, and
directed the early operations at the track at Lime Rock, Connecticut.

One of the energy-absorbing devices is an adaptation of the Fitch
Barrier. It is a grouping or array of energy-absorbing modules,
designed for head-on or high angle, high speed impacts. It increases
resistance as the car nears the rigid guard rails in place for
spectator protection, and it will be able to drastically reduce the
forces acting on drivers. This deceleration system has been named the
"Cunningham," in honor of the designer's longtime teammate and racing
patron, Briggs Cunningham. A useful feature of the system is that
elements of it can be replaced quickly by race workers during an
event.

The displaceable guardrail works on the principle of the blocking
sleds that football players use while training.  Instead of being
mounted to rigid, in-ground posts the guardrail is mounted on weighted
skids. The amount of resistance varies with the amount of weight on
the skid. Thus resistance is adjusted to the speed of impact
anticipated.

The impact-absorbing compression guardrail is proposed as a
replacement for current walls, guardrails and tire barriers -- the
bundles of tires stacked in front of unyielding guard rails and
concrete walls. When hit at a shallow angle at racing speeds, tire
walls snag and violently reject the cars back into the stream of
traffic. In the new design, resilient tubes or foam- filled tires are
banded and placed between the post and the track-side rail, thus
preventing snagging and rejection into traffic. As an advantage of the
compression guardrail, it can be used where space is limited.

The fourth design idea is a driver safety capsule that protects the
driver within the car. Somewhat similar in concept to those used in
Unlimited Hydroplane racing it is a cell that surrounds and protects
the driver from the effects of a collision, yet leaves him free to
steer, shift and brake. The intent is to integrate it into the design
of the race car so that an injured driver can be removed from the car
while immobilized in the cell.

These designs were presented to the Federation Internationale de
L'Automobile at a meeting in London, and subsequently to Max Mosely,
the president of F.I.A. As a result, the designs now have the support
of the F.I.A.  and they have offered to test the Cunningham at the
MIRA proving ground in England.

Highway applications of these racing safety systems are expected to
evolve after the impact attenuating barriers have been proven in
motorsports, as in the past.

The company formed to develop, manufacture and install the safety
devices is Impact Attenuation, Inc. The people involved with the
company and its projects include John Fitch, William and Douglas
Milliken, Karl E.  Ludvigsen, Paul Frere and Stirling Moss. In
addition to his advisory role in the design of the race track at Lime
Rock, Connecticut, Fitch is best-known as the only American ever to
drive for the Mercedes-Benz racing team.  The Millikens are noted
engineers and the authors of Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, published by
the Society of Automotive Engineers. Mr. Ludvigsen is the founder of
the Motor Racing Safety Society and chairman of a motor industry
consultancy, headquartered in London, England. Paul Frere is a
LeMans-winning driver, noted automotive journalist and author of the
book Sports Car and Competition Driving. Stirling Moss is a legend in
motorsports.

Phil Hill and others prominent in the sport are informed advocates. To
date, Adrian Reynard has offered a Formula Atlantic car to be used for
crash testing. Briggs Cunningham, Roger Penske, Vintage Motorsport and
Roadway Safety Service, a supplier of highway safety devices, are
among those who have helped to launch the undertaking.

Additional sponsorship will be required for prototypes to be
fabricated and tested. Interested parties should contact Impact
Attenuation, Inc., 433 Salmon Kill Road, Lime Rock, CT 06039,
860-435-2006, or Carl Goodwin, Hedge & Company, Southfield, MI
860-350-2190.