Hi all! I'm thinking of getting my own helmet done (in real life ofcourse ). I've finished a draft design earlier today and I just thought that either a green visor or blue one would work. AFAIK, the blue visor already exists but does the green one too?

Also, just for my general knowledge, anyone know all the colours you can get a visor in?

i have a friend that uses a kind of blue with yellow-orange... strange

Ask JJ72 (http://www.lfsforum.net/member.php?u=7744), afaik he is a helmet designer (at least freelancer)

It all depends on what helmet you have too. Some have more options than others. Arai, for example, haven't made some of their advertised iridium coated visors for a long time so they're hard to find.

Well, I'm not too familiar with the helmet brands but as far as I know, Arai and Bell are the ones to go for. I'll read up more on their websites to see what suits me. Just wondering though, if I wanted to get a proper helmet and get it designed professionally, how much would it cost?

Depends on 'proper' and your budget.

Decent, entry level motorsport helmet, with HANS - £350 or thereabouts.
Simple, clean, recognisable paintjob - £400 (unless you get a cheap job done, but you'll regret it)
HANS device to go with it - £600

Or, if you can afford it

Decent Helmet £1200+
Paintjob £1000+
HANS £600

Make sure you try the helmets on (with balaclava). I didn't, but was lucky the Arai fitted very nicely (nicer than any previous helmet). Bell are good, but tend to lie about what they actually make - most Bell Helmets are not in stock anywhere...

so I suppose I should go with Arai then. Well, I'm kind of looking at it from the perspective that I'm probably going to use it for a very long time, if I do get into racing that is and then maybe when the helmet gets badly damaged (compromising safety) or I get some nice chunky prize money, to perhaps buy another one, maybe with a new design too as I'm not completely definite on my current one but for now, I'll try and get a helmet based on my current design.

Well, Helmets have a shelf life - after a few years you have to replace them regardless of accidents or use. And even the slightest knock can compromise safety, even if it looks 100% fine inside and out.

Chunky prize money is YEARS away for you. If you haven't even started racing then you'll have a lot of paying out to do. You've said before you want to get to F1, so you need to be winning in a national championship soon.

If you are struggling with money then don't paint it. It doesn't make you faster. That same money spent on a car item might be the different between winning and losing, and if F1 is your (ambitious) aim you would sell your body to go faster rather than squander limited cash on pointless frivolities.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Well, Helmets have a shelf life - after a few years you have to replace them regardless of accidents or use. And even the slightest knock can compromise safety, even if it looks 100% fine inside and out.

Chunky prize money is YEARS away for you. If you haven't even started racing then you'll have a lot of paying out to do. You've said before you want to get to F1, so you need to be winning in a national championship soon.

If you are struggling with money then don't paint it. It doesn't make you faster. That same money spent on a car item might be the different between winning and losing, and if F1 is your (ambitious) aim you would sell your body to go faster rather than squander limited cash on pointless frivolities.

...says the man with the white helmet.

I bet you keep your sex wee in to get far in real racing, too

What on earth is a "sex wee"? It sounds disgusting!

Yup - white helmet here. I hate it. But the money I saved went on race entries and things to make the car go faster (and it appeared to work!). Considering having a cheap/nasty paintjob done over the winter, even if it's just a single all over colour. I might even learn how to do it myself (I can spray a car - just need to use the right paint to avoid damaging the helmet shell...).

Quote from tristancliffe :

Well, Helmets have a shelf life - after a few years you have to replace them regardless of accidents or use. And even the slightest knock can compromise safety, even if it looks 100% fine inside and out.

Chunky prize money is YEARS away for you. If you haven't even started racing then you'll have a lot of paying out to do. You've said before you want to get to F1, so you need to be winning in a national championship soon.

If you are struggling with money then don't paint it. It doesn't make you faster. That same money spent on a car item might be the different between winning and losing, and if F1 is your (ambitious) aim you would sell your body to go faster rather than squander limited cash on pointless frivolities.

Well, I'll probably be spending a bit out of my pocket. I've written my racing profile last night, some grammatical mistakes here and there to correct but overall, I think I'm promoting myself quite well. Anyway, I was considering offering 3 options to the companies I'll be approaching. 1st option. They can pay for my race seat, thats fine and would be great or 2nd option. Pay for my race seat and equipment and in turn, I will place their company logos on my overalls and helmet so I may not have to pay a single penny in all this , if the 2nd option falls through and the 3rd option. Pay for my race seat, equipment and test days to give me a better chance to win races, thus promoting their name. I still have to start writing a proposal which I will do very soon but I don't really have much idea on what kind of format to go with so any tips there would be greatly appreciated.

After reading my post now, does it seem like I'm talking out of my ass?

you might like check this out

http://www.caracoat.co.jp/eng/index.html

The product from this japanese based company is hugely popular.

You haven't stated what you are racing and where/when, but yes, I think you are talking out of your ass (donkey?).

If you've not raced before (which I assume you haven't judging by your various posts on the matter that I've read), then you will struggle to sell yourself to a company and get anything out of it. You might get a sponsership deal with, say, Agip whereby in return for putting their logo over your car they give you some free oil. Until you are competitive and established you are very unlikely to get money from anyone! If you can get close to winning races in your first year or two at your expense, you might start getting small cash injections.

Of course, if you manage to get sponsership that will pay for a drive I'll be insanely jealous - I won't pretend othewise. And maybe I am a little bit pessimistic about it all. But I don't see any company (that can afford to give money away to racing) giving money to someone with no track record, no results and no ability to pay their own way at all - would you sponser someone who wants everything paid for for them? I wouldn't, unless they could pretty much prove they were going to be winning (or thereabouts).

Good luck!

Do tell me what you are racing and when/where.

Well, the handy thing about this series is that the seat price is quite affordable so if lets say I approach between 8-10 companies and being realistic, 2 or maybe 3 agree, the money that they'll be investing is waay less than what they'll be gaining. I will let you know what I'm racing if I get in it but the figures aren't extreme as I've seen before. You may think that if I mentioned the seat price as being affordable, that the series would most likely not be serious or considered a joke but I'll have you know, many current day F1 drivers have competed in it and as far as I know, many of today's F3 drivers started in it.

I know sponsorship is one of the hardest things in motorsport, if not the hardest but the way I look at it, there are only 3 Egyptians in the WHOLE country who are attempting to compete in this series, me being one of them and Egypt doesn't exactly have a history of great racing events, drivers or tracks like a country like England or Germany so the newness and ignorance of companies will make them easy to encourage them to sponsor me. If you think that Egypt isn't that ignorant, not sure if you're familiar with it but there is a ZIP Formula series that runs in Bahrain. They're a bunch of 20 cars designed by a guy called Martin Hines (Details of the series and cars can be found here). Anyway, the Egyptian Racing Team principle was able to bring 3 of the cars over from Bahrain to a motorshow here in Egypt known as the Automech. The main idea was to try and promote the team and its drivers, I went to him telling him that I was interested in becoming a driver for the team(trying to promote myself better being part of a team). He said it was cool and felt good about it but there had been many interviews that they did, himself and the other drivers that he didn't tell me about so now, I've kind of just thought screw them, I'm going in my way. Anyway , point of the story is that a bunch of companies approached the team, telling them that its the "Chinese Formula 1 car" so talk about ignorance . So, many companies don't fully understand racing and while there is the downside because they may not understand the promotional idea behind placing their company logo on my car or racing equipment, there is the up side that I'm of very few who want to reach F1, trying to say that I can be the first Egyptian, well 1/2 , to get to F1.

Quote from Leprekaun :

the money that they'll be investing is waay less than what they'll be gaining.

Really? What will they gain? Exposure? If Egypt is so clueless about motor racing then how will a company benefit from being seen at the back (lets be honest, you probably won't be at the front to start with) of a relatively unknown formulae?

I don't think many F1 drivers drove in an Egyptian series, so I guess you're not racing in the country.

Sorry, but I just think you are FAR too optimistic of results, progression and money. I hope, for your sake, I'm wrong.

You're 17 - so basically you need to be in GP2 in about 5 years, and winning in it in 6, to stand much chance of F1. Yet you don't even know what helmet visor to get? The road is long and winding from here onwards...

Well, tristan, its in fact run in Bahrain at the GP circuit. I'm hoping to start competing in the Formula BMW Racing Center Race Series, thats the series I'm trying to get in to where many F1 drivers raced, true didn't do it in Bahrain but have done it in other countries. One of the 3 drivers has already been sponsored for the season so it isn't exactly hopeless and the fact that I have a much deeper understanding of racing compared to him as I've met him before and he may equal my speed (in karts where he's been racing in it for 5 years and I've had no professional karting experience) but doesn't know much about racing. I'll let you know of my progress if I get in.

Just to clarify, are you intending to try to get a BMW scholarship to get in or actually planning to just enter the Formula BMW Asia series?
If you're going to attempt to get the scholarship I'd focus on that for the moment rather than trying to get a sponsor (or pick a visor colour). Given that scholarship covers around 35% of the season's running costs I would be trying to get that 1st, otherwise you're looking at generating around $150,000US to do the series (based on 2007 figures).
You'll still need around $100,000US with the scholarship, but you'll get help from BMW with acquiring sponsors should you be successful.

Basically Nico Rosberg got help by entering in his dad's team, Mansell's kids are doing the same. Vettel had been karting since he was 8 and BMW probably have an option on him should they want him.

All in all, I wouldn't say this is the easiest, or cheapest formulae to start in for a complete novice, and the rewards seem to go to drivers that have sound backing to start with.

If you do get in then I wish you well, but it sounds a bit more involved than your post makes out.

Quote from Jakg :

I bet you keep your sex wee in to get far in real racing, too

Well, according the document that I received, it costs 8,000 Thousand Euros for the "Rookie Package" which I will be taking since I don't have a race licence and I need to acquaint myself with the car. Then there are practice days which I will most probably go for the half day course which costs 891 Euros per session which if I were to do 3 or 4 of those, the total cost would be between 10,673 and 11564 Euros. Not easy money to come by. In Egyptian pounds, which is the currency I'll be dealing with when it comes to sponsors, it totals out at around 90,000 EGP and thats if I attempt to go after 1 sponsor but I will be sending out my proposal to many different companies, hoping maybe to get 3 which is the maximum allowed on the car, I'd be asking for around 30,000 from each company which really, isn't much for a multinational company. I still have some stuff to do before I can approach these companies but honestly, I don't think the money is that unreasonable.

30,000 EGP = 3,800 Euros

jesus, u approach 7 or 8 companies and 3 will sponsor!

thats a pretty good success rate, put them in contact with me please!

if you have never raced before, u will struggle to do any good, no offence but its just a fact.

and car . Thats how sponsorship works, afaik anyway. Trust me, its like one of those "Raise up a fellow countryman to prove what his country is capable of" kind of thing . Also, I could agree to attending and assisting in promoting their products.

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Quote from Leprekaun :

and car . Thats how sponsorship works, afaik anyway. Trust me, its like one of those "Raise up a fellow countryman to prove what his country is capable of" kind of thing . Also, I could agree to attending and assisting in promoting their products.

They'll want more than logos on the car. To get that amount of money, you'll have to attend various PR days both with and without your car. You will have to make sure (read: guarantee) good exposure in many magazines on the national and international stage. You will have to produce results of sufficient quality that performance clauses in the contract don't get called upon.

No way in hell with a company give you some money and some stickers, then leave you to it. You have to EARN THEIR MONEY BACK somehow. You have to take their brand and improve it, and expose it to markets they don't already have a market in.

To be honest, I don't think you are ready for such a race series, as you have two recent threads that show how little you understand about racing and driving (no offence, but you started them, not I). May I suggest a couple of years of driver coaching, a couple of years of high-level karting, and three or four jobs.

Quote from Leprekaun :

Well, according the document that I received, it costs 8,000 Thousand Euros for the "Rookie Package" which I will be taking since I don't have a race licence and I need to acquaint myself with the car. Then there are practice days which I will most probably go for the half day course which costs 891 Euros per session which if I were to do 3 or 4 of those, the total cost would be between 10,673 and 11564 Euros. Not easy money to come by. In Egyptian pounds, which is the currency I'll be dealing with when it comes to sponsors, it totals out at around 90,000 EGP and thats if I attempt to go after 1 sponsor but I will be sending out my proposal to many different companies, hoping maybe to get 3 which is the maximum allowed on the car, I'd be asking for around 30,000 from each company which really, isn't much for a multinational company. I still have some stuff to do before I can approach these companies but honestly, I don't think the money is that unreasonable.

30,000 EGP = 3,800 Euros

I'm not curious about the sponsorship issue and I wish you luck with it, but I am curious about just what you get for a relatively low amount of 8000 euros in the "Rookie Package" - obviously something substantial if you feel you can attract sponsorship on the back of participating in it.
edit: heh unless you actually meant to type 8000 thousand euros

at the end of the day leprekaun, u will need to learn ALOT and race a fair few times before u start to achieve and decent results, but i can assure you, if you THINK you will be good enough, then one day you will be (if keep an open mind and find someone who can coach you)

so good luck!