my dad owns a 1988 fc and has sparco racing seats and 4 point harness and a cusco rear strut brace. he asked me to install it for him but taking a look at the instructions i came to realise how little japanese i know. he had the top harnesses going thru thetop of the seat right back down to where the lap belt is attached, i saw this and told him not to drive it and to get some sort of harness bar b/c it was unsafe.

anybody own an fc that has a cusco OS rear strut bar and can help me understand what i need to do to install it? or how to attach the top straps to the bar?

 

That is true. Mounting the belts in this way will compress your spine whenever they are loaded.

This is equally unsafe. Any strut bar is not made to bear the loads of a shoulder harness in a collision, it is made to brace the strut towers. Either the belts are mounted to a proper roll or harness bar or the shoulder straps are extended into the trunk and anchored to the floor with backing plates. Seems that specs I have seen from the safety guys say you want the shoulder belts to go no more than 5 degrees above horizontal and no more than 15 degrees below horizontal (double check those numbers!). Anything else is improper and unsafe, regardless of how many cars you've seen that violate that rule.

 

NASA requires that the shoulder harnesses do not exceed a 20-deg angle.

If your dad is just using the harnesses to hold himself in place for track driving, he could use them WITH the factory seatbelts. Then mounting the harnesses to the strut bar wouldn't be a big deal, because the seat belts are holding you in place. If he is using the harnesses alone, then, as Damon stated, you cannot use a strut bar.

 

"or the shoulder straps are extended into the trunk and anchored to the floor with backing plates. "

backing plates? what are those and where do i find them. what is the safest way to bolt the harness in?

 

http://www.gforce.com/products/harne...tinghdwre.html

The eyebolt goes through the trunk floor, through the backing plate and is then bolted into place. Harness clips to the eyebolt. One eyebolt is required for each shoulder harness.

 

thanks everyone, anyone know how to install that strut bar tho? the cusco OS? im so confused, hah, the bar is longer than the side walls of the struts

 

nevermind, im an idiot, please try to forget my previous question. thank you