Unfortunately the nearest dealer is in Virginia, but I grew up in Dallas so I'm thinking about a trip back home and set aside a day to go down to Cresson and rent a Rush from Rapscallion for a day. I just ordered the helmet today so I'm not sure how long it will take to get here but I would think they must have some helmets around for rentals.

I'm happy to hear that y'all went with the ABP! (I should email Aaron and ask for a commission at this point! HA!).

My demo drive was in what would actually become my car after. I had been speaking with Andrew at Rush of Central Texas for a while to schedule my drive and he had mentioned that they would have a used car for sale soon. I found out that at my demo drive the car I would be driving was the one that was going to be sold.
The demo was at MSR Cresson ( I live roughly between Houston and Austin) on the 3.1 circuit. I was prepared for the 1.7 and felt relatively confident despite being out of a racecar for 10 years and this being my first time on a real road course, but the other half that made it the 3.1 was an entirely different animal. Super tight turns, incredible elevation changes, blind uphill corners, and even getting airborne every lap where the two circuits join on the straight. It was both terrifying and exhilarating, but also just a lot of track when getting your feet wet in a new discipline and car. The car is way more capable than I am until I have more seat time, incredibly fast, I definitely understand why the SRX is considered the "pro model".

After the drive, we made an agreement to purchase the car and they have been prepping it for me to pick up. All in all, I will be getting more of a refurbished car than a truly used one. Fresh bodywork, new seat, cleaned up, fresh tires, etc. I'm also having them install the trident and Holley hydramat.

Shawn, I saw that you mentioned you are in Florida, you should be able to call your nearest dealer and work on scheduling a demo around home rather than coming all the way to Texas.

Thank you both for your input. I ordered this morning as well. David, thanks for the tip, now I have $800 to spend on something else! You mentioned that you had a demo drive, was that in your car after it was finished? Did you have to go to Houston for the demo drive?

David - ordered! Painful but I guess I rather be alive and poor than rich and dead.

Eric H said:

Welcome Shawn! My car is also on order and many months away. I just started the helmet shopping saga so I appreciate David’s tip. I will check it out. I was looking at a ABP helmets as well. I was really hoping I could get a more budget friendly one then buy an ABP visor but I have not found that as an option yet.

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Hey Eric, Those visors are not compatible with non-abp helmets. (Convenient for ABP owners since they are more expensive). Get in touch with Aaron at Harris Race Radios aaron@harriscomms.co.nz. The price has even gone down a bit since I purchased mine. They've got it listed for $3087 USD Shipping and customs will be about another $250. The 2024 ABP standard is not even released yet and after speaking with someone at the Stilo factory they have said there are no plans to add a forseeable expiration date on current ABP helmets even when the new ones come out. Meaning you should get the full 10 years out of the helmet.
Rush CEO David Hosie remarked that his father said, on the day you need that helmet, you'll want the best one you can afford.

Welcome Shawn! My car is also on order and many months away. I just started the helmet shopping saga so I appreciate David’s tip. I will check it out. I was looking at a ABP helmets as well. I was really hoping I could get a more budget friendly one then buy an ABP visor but I have not found that as an option yet.

Hey Shawn. I am also a future Rush owner (should be getting my car within the next couple of days). I have already purchased all of my driving gear and used it during my demo drive. I went with a Stilo st5 FIA 8860 ABP helmet that I purchased from Harris Race Radios out of New Zealand. I had to fill out some customs forms and wait quite a while but still saved about 800 bucks vs buying it here in the States. Regardless of what manufacturer you choose, I would not go with anything that is not a ballistic rating for an open cockpit car. Especially after both seeing the footage of Felipe Massa's 2009 crash caused by a ballistic impact (and sparked the creation of the ABP helmet standard), and the Willow Springs incident in which a fellow Rush driver was killed after being struck in the head by debris from another car resulting in an accident. Out of respect for the driver and family, I do not believe it was ever officially confirmed whether the blow to the head was fatal or the resulting crash, but it is nearly indisputable that the catalyst for the crash was the ballistic impact. There are numerous comments from others who are not a part of the rush community on other websites confirming that they also saw the flying debris, and Rush's official statement also notes that the car was visibly undamaged after the impact to the driver's helmet and before the resulting crash.
I know that others may not want to spend that kind of money on a helmet, but personally, I would not get into any kind of open cockpit without a ballistic-rated helmet.
I also have had the trident fitted to protect from larger debris or entire cars. Both measures may be more expensive, but I would rather spend the money now so that I am alive and hopefully able to continue racing if, god forbid, I got into that serious of an accident.
I certainly hope that at some point all open cockpit drivers will have ABP-rated helmets either through reduced cost as the tech becomes less new and manufacturing scales, or through mandatory regulation so that we never have another similar tragedy.