Asterisk

iTrader: (3)

Well, I was just reading up on here, about all the people that put a bucket seat into their car, and want to add a harness as well, but that requires a roll bar, and a ton of people are paranoid of "cracking their head open" on it even if it does not extend forward of the B pillars.

I think I might possibly have a solution for this problem, although I'm not having much luck finding anything out there that suits my needs.

I rode in an Older TVR at an autocross once, and it was a model which, instead of seat belts, featured these weird "3 point harnesses". It was like a seatbelt but withought the tensioning mechanism, and instead, the pull straps often found on shoulder harnesses. these, while a little less comfy than the shoulder harness, kept you in place pretty well, and they attached to the stock seat belts mounting points. Does anyone currently offer a product like this, because this would be a great solution to having to get a roll bar and a 5 point shoulder one!

Asterisk

iTrader: (3)

no one? Eh, I guess it is valentine's day and all...

Black91n/a

Never heard of it, but it is possible to engage the inertia lock and have that hold you in quite well. There's also the CG Lock that pre-tensions the lap belt portion.

I'm not worried about cracking my head on my roll bar, it's a bunch behind my head and it's padded. I'd be more worried about internal injuries from a 4 point getting pulled up into my gut (if you want a harness, make it 5 point at least), spinal compression or belt stretch from improperly installed harnesses (too much angle or too long). Also, excessive slack in the lap from 3 points going over the sides boulsters of bucket seats isn't good either.

A properly installed roll bar, 5+ point harnesses and FIA rated buckets should be safer than stock.

turboeric

That's just an old style OE seatbelt, such as were common in the late 60s, early 70s. A PITA for daily use, which is why the inertia reels came into being. That old style of belt was excellent for holding you in place - you could cinch down the lap strap, and leave some slack in the torso belt for daily driving, but the average commuter hated them and just left them hanging.

I have seen ads in some of the British classic car mags for companies that make 'classic' belts for restorations. If they'll sell to the US, that might be worth exploring, but they may be scared off by liability concerns.

Asterisk

iTrader: (3)

lol, that sounds like an idea! I just think it's odd that no company like sparco makes these, for the same reason stated above.

Black91n/a

It really doesn't matter what the belts are, because there's no way to safely install them in the FC without a roll bar with an intergral harness bar. They'll either be too long so that stretch is a problem, or they'll be mounted at too steep an angle and spinal compression will be a problem.

You could possibly make up a custom harness bar like the Sparco ones, but I'd reccomend having some extra rollover protection given that you'd then be held bolt upright and won't be able to move out of the way of a collapsing roof.

Asterisk

iTrader: (3)

You know, the other day, I was thking, why not have the factory inergrate a cage into the car, like have the Roof pillars be so strong, the car can be used in pro-racing withought a roll cage at all! and they can even cover it up with plastic to look stock or something!

EDIT: Well, I guess it WOULD weight quite a bit...

Black91n/a

That's essentially what a modern race car is. They build all the necessary crash structures into the carbon monocoque.

Well the roof's designed to hold up a bunch of weight, so if you just put the car down on its roof it'd be ok, but maybe not if it gets tossed in the air, flips, rolls violently, etc, a cage will make it stronger.