I don't need a roll cage or anything, but i'd like to have a good harness for autocrossing. Just wondering if anyone makes something that I can attach a harness to? I think I remember seeing people have something mounted to the bottom of the hatch area but it looked kinda cheaply done.

 

There's one from I/O port racing, but I have no idea about the fitment, or how much it will or won't limit seat travel. The best option for a harness bar would be to have one custom made like the Sparco ones. That way it wouldn't limit seat travel much or at all. By the time you have one custom made you may as well have invested that money in a roll bar, as it won't be much more expensive. The bars you see in the hatch area are rear shock tower bars, they connect the shock tops on either side for a stiffer chassis, they are NOT harness bars and should NOT be used as such, as they aren't designed to take that loading.

You'll probably have issues keeping the harness on your shoulders if you have stock seats, so that's absolutely NOT recomended. You need seats with harness holes.

 

Yeah I wouldn't be using it with stock seats. I think I might just have to weld up my own bar somewhere in the back, or make something removable. I'll probably end up ditching the whole idea and spending the money elsewhere though.

 

Since you have the right kind of seats already it'd be a worthwile upgrade for autocrossing, since a harness will keep you in the seat better, giving you better feel and control precision. The cost really depends on who does the work, how much the materials are, and how many mistakes are made. I don't think it'd be too hard to do, provided the right tools (the speacialty tools would be a mandrel pipe bender, and a good MIG or TIG welder) and the right skills to work the machinery.

If you're really into autocross then a harness bar gives you the harness advantage, with much less weight than a roll bar.

 

What's the word on using a rear strut tower bar as a harness bar? I've always wondered if there were any saftey issues with this. It would be at an ideal angle, and I imagine it would be a pretty secure mount.

(I wouldn't mount a harness to my CP Racing rear strut bar, it sucks.)

 

I thought the angle was too steep for it to be safe for a harness. Plus, that specific piece is designed more for lateral forces than frontal forces. So, it might snap if it goes underload perpendicular but work fine parallel to the towers.

 

Yeah while I was searching the forums it was pretty much decided over and over that the strut bar wouldn't be a good harness bar.

 

A rear strut bar would be WAY too flimsy to be used as a harness bar, either style (botling to the shock tops vs. bolting to the sheet metal like CP's). They aren't designed to take loads like that, and not in that direction and not of that magnitude. The mounts aren't up to it, the bar isn't up to it, and they're only held on with two bolts on each side for the shock top style, and the other style is just bolted to some thin sheet metal. It's also rather far away for a harness to be mounted, as in a crash there could be excessive stretching of the belts reducing the safety of the harnesses.

The Sparco style is good because it uses the seatbelt mounting points (wouldn't work with auto belts). It is therefore guaranteed to have strong mounts. That or a roll bar would be about the only things I'd consider using as a harness mount myself.