solo1seven

Hi,

Is it safe to use the factory rear strut tower bar as a "harness bar" for an aftermarket racing harness such as a leaf 6 pt. with 3" belts? Oh, and any good ideas for a personalized license plate?

thanks,

Andrew Wojteczko
93 RX7 R1

Johnny

no it is not safe at all...

Please get something designed to do that...If you dont have some sort of roll cage..using a harness is a very BAD idea...

www.m2performance.com has what you are looking for

hawaii rx-7

NO~~~~~ don't do it!

mount it where you're supposed to, in the rear hatch with a big backing plate.

this is how i mounted mines,

hawaii rx-7

another shot

hawaii rx-7

and one closer
The link is rated at 3000+lb's i think, i lost the packaging, but it's up there. way more than enough. just make sure you've got a big backing plat, i used a 4" x 4" piece of steel about 1/4 inch thick.

hawaii rx-7

4 point harness for now, i didn't get the dual anti sub belts yet. shipping is fricken expensive from simpson... 35$ for a 12 $ product. jeez

hawaii rx-7

crap, i forgot the pic.

7-sins

I've hurd it's not safe.... but I have seen it done in MANY cars. I was even planning on doing it but keeping the stock seat belt there. That way if I go to the track or something I can have both to support incase the 5 point fails.

Johnny

Let me remind everyone....

Harness without a roll cage will keep you in the upright position if you happen to "roll over" not exactly the best position to be in without a roll cage..if you get my drift... for show..ok..

beside 99.9% of them are not legal...I think only Scholth(sp?) are legal...

7-sins

Oh I just remembered, the import tuner of November '01 has a RX in there with that setup.

hawaii rx-7

hey, johnny, where can u get a roll cage for our cars? i know bolt in ones are worth crap, and i want to make my car as safe as possible. about how much do u think it would cost to professionally install one?

tia,
hawaii rx-7

95R2-89TII Ground Zero

There is a guy in Michigan that will make them to fit any car. He'll use any metal compound that you want, and he doesn't charge all that much.

Johnny

www.m2performance.com

has them...kinda pricey but nice.

legendrx7

iTrader: (12)

I have my Sabelts hooked to the rear strut tower bar. It works fine and until I read this post, I thought that was a proper way of mounting them.

I do however only use them for AutoX and they seem to do the job rather well mounted to the rear strut bar. If I was road racing, I would have a roll cage anyway.

I have a friend with an R1 just like mine. He is more involved in road racing and he also has his mounted to the rear strut bar. His rear strut bar is a custom carbon fiber unit made by himself. He has no complaints about having the belts mounted there.

just my .02....

later,

ArcWelder

"I have my Sabelts hooked to the rear strut tower bar. It works fine and until I read this post, I thought that was a proper way of mounting them."

It will work okay to help hold you in position for driving (maybe 1G under braking?), the problem is when you hit something frontally at speed(20G's or more?). The stock strut reinforcement bar is not strong enough across it's length to prevent you from going forward into the steering wheel or windshield. IMO, it's just not safe!

"I have a friend with an R1 just like mine. He is more involved in road racing and he also has his mounted to the rear strut bar. His rear strut bar is a custom carbon fiber unit made by himself. He has no complaints about having the belts mounted there."

It could even be worse with CF. It will not bend, just simply break. Again the bar is meant to be strong from end to end, not pulled across it's length.

"i know bolt in ones are worth crap, and i want to make my car as safe as possible. about how much do u think it would cost to professionally install one?"

Well..., bolt-in is not necessarily "crap". A roll bar welded to the frame might be better, maybe not however. Kirk Racing Products (ph. # 205-608-1156)makes a nice bolt-in which either retains or eliminates the bins for about $350. It's very strong, the main hoop mounts to the floor with thick backing plates. The rear support bars mount to the rear wheel wells also with backing plates.

"Harness without a roll cage will keep you in the upright position if you happen to "roll over" not exactly the best position to be in without a roll cage..if you get my drift... for show..ok.."

Agreed...

"beside 99.9% of them are not legal...I think only Scholth(sp?) are legal..."

For street driving yes, they must be DOT approved. Most of the harnesses are SFI approved, good for competition.

Mark

legendrx7

iTrader: (12)

Hey thanks for the info Mark. I will look into reinstalling my shoulder belts during the offseason. I'd rather be safe than sorry

hawaii rx-7

Does the nhra consider bolt in roll bars legal? i may be mistaken, but I was under the impression that they wern't. i'm getting my info from the board here, perhaps i should check with my local track (lazy) Well a while back, someone posted a picture of the orange fd from turbo with the cusco bolt in, and people commented that bolt in roll bars are not safe at all. if i'm wrong, then all the better for me, i'll be ording a roll bar from kirk asap. thanks for the info dude, i'll do a little more research. oh an i think michigan is a little too far from me but thanks for the advice. i'll see if i can find a local shop here first.

are there any bolt in roll cages that look like ari's dragster, or was that a custom job? oh yeah, i have this little tiff going, will a roll cage do anything for you if you're broadsided?

keep this going, safety first!

ArcWelder

"Does the nhra consider bolt in roll bars legal? i may be mistaken, but I was under the impression that they wern't."

I don't know, you'd have to check with each of the sanctioning organizations to see which is legal. I just do driving schools and hot lapping so legality wasn't an issue. I got my bar from Kirk, and from the questions they asked when I ordered it, they knew which type of bar to use based on the application.

A good source of info. is on Ciriani's site:
http://www.scuderiaciriani.com/rx7/roll_cage.html

Mark

SleepR1

So who's the guy in Michigan? Can he make me a roll cage in chrom moly?

martini

I believe NHRA requires welded cages, but you have to be running 11.99 or less to require a cage. If a cage isn't required for you, but you have one anyways, you can run bolt-in, weld-in, hotglued-in, duct taped-in...Anything you want (well, you get the idea anyways).

This isn't explicitely written in the rule book, but I had a very similar question about my CRX. I was going to be installing a cage, no two ways about it. Not planning to run quicker than 11.99 (at least not for a while.. ), I didn't want to have to get a certified welder to make me a cage. So I wrote them a letter asking, and they gave me a response similar to the above.

SleepR1

I'm having an M2 seat harness bar/rear strut brace installed for my Schroth 4-point, 3-point attachment, harnesses (dr/passgr). The M2 has two threaded inserts per side (dr/passgr), and the insert closes to the strut brace is directly behind each occupant, making it ideal for use with a single point attachment for the shoulder harnesses.

Currently the Schroths are bolted to one of the strut tower shock bolts making the attachment slightly to the driver's left. The uneveness in attachment has not been ideal, so I'm looking forward to finally having my Schroth shoulder harnesses attached ideally behind me and the passenger!

FWIW, the stock rear strut brace looks like a toothpick compared with the M2 harness bar/ rear strut brace. The M2 piece is rather pricey at $250, but the harness bar/rear strut brace is quite beefy with triangulated joints (gussetted?). Because it mounts directly to the stock location, I'm guessing the sheer stiffness of the new M2 bar might actually stiffen the rear end slightly compared with the flimsy stock rear strut brace...

95R2-89TII Ground Zero

I mounted mine almost the same way.