With racing seats and sparco harness's, is there anyway possible to have a harness bar but still have your back seats accessable? I really want to do a full Sparco set up and a four part harness but an drawing a blank as to what to do about the harness bar becuase i still need my back seats. I really wish i could just take them out but i cant turn my tC into a full crcuit car yet so they have to stay in. Plus im always cartin around my lil bro or his friends so i still need them Any advice would be greatly appreciated


thanks a lot!!

 

New question:: is there any harness Bars that just go behind the Drivers seat or do all aplications like that need to be custom????


Thanks A Lot

 

PTuning has one on their tC and they are working on getting them mass produced
I have asked to purchase one, i would pay to have it custom made but they would not do it. Instead i have roll bars on the way, that have harness bar included

 

But Would it still allow access to my back seats??

 

Just run an autopower setup from SafeDrives in the classifieds section.... Like Mine...

It allows me to remove my horizontal and cross bar for access to the rear seats for daily driving, while still allowing them for track days/shows/hardcore driving with harnesses... (Best cool and clean option IMHO)

 

A harness bar with 5 or 6 point harnesses is very dangerous if you suffer a serious enough crash to cave in the roof. Well, not much of a roof on most tCs is there?

Why? Because you cannot slide down under the lap belt and may suffer a serious compression of your spinal.

In all forms of wheel to wheel racing and many of not most track day events, you will not be allowed to run with that setup, for good reason.

Besides, you cannot have a harness bar and good back seat access, not going to work well.

Here is an option, get some four point or three point harnesses, ones without crotch straps. BUT, they can allow you to slide on frontal impacts and result in serious injuries, most are not DOT approved for that reason.

Another option, Schroth 3 or 4 point harnesses, they even have some with inertial reals with electrical lockouts. They are designed with a breakaway section that causes you to twist just enough to prevent submarining in a frontal crash but would allow you do slide down in a hard rollover to help prevent spinal injuries.

We have a welded in custom roll bar and 6 point Racetech harnesses(a bit spendy but superb quality) for track days, etc. And, we have Schroth 3 point harnesses for transit to events, the rare occasions our car is just out for a drive, etc.

Sure, we spent alot of money but we are secure and safe and it is worth it to us.

Rick

 

I had stated orginally that i wanted a 4 point harness never said anything about a 5 or 6 point harness, and i have spoken with many instrustors who are a part of the BMW Car Club Of America which am a part of and they have said nothing about me not being a able to run with that set-up, they have acually told me it was a great idea because when u are racing 95% of the time unless im taking a training course im in the car alone and all i need is a harness on my drivers side. Also have never warned me about any risk factors wth that set-up, i mean its quite obvious that it will ntot be a effective as a full roll cage and 5 point harness but i would much rather take the four point on the track then a POS stock seat belt's, wouldnt you??

 

I was posting this for others to see as well since so many have a misunderstanding of real safety;)

I did miss the part about 4 point, I just jumped ahead when I saw racing seats and harness's mentioned, sorry about that.

As for racing seats, are you talking about actual racing seats or performance seats, there is a big difference, actual racing seats never recline. Again, you may know this but many others do not.

When we run our 3 point units we use the rear seat belt anchor points, the ones towards the sides of the car, lap belt location. If less than a 45% degree angle it is pretty safe to do so.

About the only way I can think of having a drivers side only harness bar is with a roll bar with angle brace from drivers head to the floor on the other side then a bar across it behind the seat for the harness. I do not know if this is considered a legal and safe method though.

Rick

 

Plus im almost positive i have seen a set-up where the was a steel bar bolted to the floor behind the drivers seat and the Harness followed the back of the seat down to the harness bar which was only a few inches above the floor, so i know what im asking about isnt completly unhead of i was just lookin to see if somewhere had some knowledge in the area of a design of that sort, it would all be extremly helpful



Thanks all

~Nick

 

Sorry Rick didnt mean to get on ur case like that. Yea im talking about Performance seats i said before i would give anything to make this car into a bad a$$ stripped 2 racing seats 10-point roll cage etc track car but........can't its still gonna be a daily driver through-out college so im just trying to bring the best of boith worlds 2 it a enjoyable fun fast loud stereo system car with a alternate side of a solid safe track car. My olny fear is turning it into something out of the Fast and the Furious but yea to answer your question they are gonna be performance seats either Sparco Monza's or Milano 2's

 

Please note, I am only trying to help, not be a butt head, not in my nature

I would advise to be carefull about that, my neighbor down the road is an SFI Rally America Scrutineer and owns a racing safely supply company. We have discussed many issues and he has pointed out rule book sections.


The reason they cannot be straight down or of less than a certain angle is spinal compression in a head on crash. (probably other crashes as well)

http://www.scca.org/Club/Index.asp?I...0&x=030|057&~=

You can check out the entire rule book here

I have not looked up the Rally America rules recently though.

Rick

 

Yea i see what your saying, maybe i'll just get the Sparco Harness bar and make all the people who want to ride in my car climb through the trunk hahahahaha:-)

 

No problem buddy, thanks for clearing this up, just trying to help

How about a racing seat for the drivers side and a performance seat for the passenger side? Problem is most racing seats are not real comfortable for daily driving, ease of access, etc.

We have racing seats in our car, Racetech, very well made but they are not SFI approved though they just were so we will sell ours and get the approved ones eventually. There is little difference in the approved ones, I think just do not have the bottom slider mounts, have to use side mounts but I can adapt that myself, side mounts to sliders, not to hard. I find that sliders are a must on a street driven car but I am an old fart, lol!

Our seats weigh 14.6 lbs each

Note, Racetech does not make reclining seats, all fixed back, very well made products from New Zealand.

One more thing, I am working on a design for the passengerside seat bracket with a release and pivot to allow that seat to tilt forward for rear seat access.

Rick

 

Yea thats a great idea but for one im kind of a sparco guy not trying to name drop or seem narrow minded but i love their stuff but their comp. edition stuff is really intense and im still in high school so i could see me gettin a lot of s*** for havin 'em, u know how uit is people thinkin im trying to seem like im hookin up my car but really im a poser that crap. so thats y i wanted to go with the Monza's because i think they are a pretty sleek not flashy performance seat. But are u saying that if i got the brakets for my seat that allow it to move back and forth for different drivers thats not track legal???

~Nick

 

Believe me buddy, always some sort of issue.

We worked a deal with a loca shop to build us a chrome molly roll bar to save some weight and be stronger than a bolt in bar. (I also made arrangements for the first tC to go to Autopower to prototype a roll bar and roll cage then I reciefved the first production Autopower bar and I had them include removable harness and crossbars but it was just to heavy for my project, well made though!)

Anyway, I spent four days at the shop working on one of their vehicles mostly and assisting in designing our roll bar and I spent alot of money on materials for the bar, thier project and supplying them with structural eurathane foam from Germany that we used in our car.

Well, they did not build the bar to specs and are fighting me over it, I have had it inspected by a Scritineer for Rally and next will go to an SCCA inspector for a second opionion.

Right now I have well over 1,000 and 4 days of my time into something not done right or of any real safety benifit, actually it is a liability.

But, I will win in the end;)

Rick

 

haha yea good luck i hope u do thats 2 much monehy and time wasted to lose it all

 

For track days you can have stock seats, only for hard core wheel to wheel racing do you have to follow strict competition rules.

But, certain things will be deamed unsafe and can be reason to not allow a car to run.

Thanks on the roll bar, really sucked as it cost me alot in business revenue on top of everything else. I was willing to go to whatever extreme to get a proper low weight welding in roll bar(with plans to convert to a 6 point cage later on and full cage if I ever went full race with the car). but, I was ripped off instead, just not right after all I did for them.

Rick

 

yea thats Bull, but do u think if i possibly got that design i mentioned earlier with the harness' following the back of the seat to the floor behind the drivers seat, do u think they would still let me on the track just to run not big boy stuff just u know open days when u can let all ur need for speed out?? Just becuase i dont plan on running all out races my uncle does it right now with his hooked up M3 and he has had more stuff done to it then i could of ever imagined and he is just around entry level so i dont really have the funding or the back up financial stand point to race big time. but yea with that design i would still be open to the track with that design????they wouldnt deam it unsafe would they???

 

I would not think they would allow it and I highly recommend that you never use it either. Just get a four or three point harness and use the rear seat belt anchor points for the shoulder harness straps, safe, easy, no questions asked that I know of

Rick

 

By the way, I have forged steel eyebolts on all the harness, rear seatbelt, etc, mounting locations. I had to retap the holes for the right fitment, took quite some time, I used a very good tap, threading oil and the proper drill bit size to drill out the old threads.

Now I have snap in 6 point harnesses but have to bolt in the 3 point setup as I do not have snap in ends on them and they are stitched so I cannot add them on.

Really pretty easy, I just picked up some Grade 8 bolts, nuts and washers and both them to the forged eye bolts.

Rick