To correctly use a HANS device so that it can do its job, the upper anchor points for the harness need to be customised for the specific driver.
It is strongly advised by everyone that I’ve spoken to, to wear a HANS device. It costs you money (somewhere between £400/£500), but can you afford not to have one? They are used (and often mandatory) widely across motorsport now due to their effectiveness in helping to prevent serious injury.
Currently, in order to use a HANS device with the Academy car, you need to have the anchor points for the top straps altered. There is only one approved partner that Caterham allow to do this job – Arch Motors, in London – and they have a fee of £200 + VAT to carry out the measurements and chasis amends. Currently, there is a regulation in the rules that stipulates you need the paperwork from Arch Motors to prove that they carried out the work before you will be allowed to run with HANS. (Note: apparently, Caterham are looking at amending this regulation to allow more flexibility for people not close to London – I’ll try and update this post if I find out more.)
You can run the HANS with the standard Caterham supplied harness that comes with the car – although some have said this can be uncomfortable and they have opted for something like this – http://www.msar-safety.com/detail.asp?p=227 to help with comfort.
You can also run with a HANS and the Tillet seat that Caterham supply, although Arch Motors advise that the harness openings in the seat may need to be extended if you are particularly tall or particularly short.
If you are going to go down the ‘bag seat’ route for your car, it is important that this work has been done before visiting Arch Motors. They need you in your final seating position so they can take the correct measurements.
They can accommodate appointments within a couple of days normally and they suggest it takes between 1.5 and 2 hours to complete the work.
Apparently, there is a high quality chocolate shop opposite to get back brownie points for spending all your households money :)
The original anchor points will still be present after Arch have done their work, and you can move the straps back to their original positions for road use without the HANS.
It was stated a few times that you would need to remove the roll cage before the work could be done. Removing the rollcage is apparently a pfaff that involves removing the read dampers to get to a bolt… However, this is apparently not the case, as the bolt that holds the harness straps is overly long and can be cut down once your IVA inspection has been passed and you’re road legal.