I've been perusing these and other forums educating myself on the many ways people have setup their seats and harness for the track and thought it might be a good idea to start a new thread to compile some of the information I've found into one neat place for easier access. Some of those threads are very old, and while they are very informative some leave many questions unanswered and many of the folks posting in them have moved on. Hopefully we can get some more current information posted here!
SAFETY FIRST
First, let me state the obvious and say that I think we can all agree that whether it's drag, autocross or road course, if you're going to be driving your car on a race track at high speeds by far the safest setup would be a custom roll cage welded into the car. For the ones that have done this I applaud you, but for the majority of people that is simply not a feasible option. I would guess that most people are like me in that we like going to the track and want to be as safe as we can, but still want our cars to have the ability to swap all the track setup stuff out to get the car back into "street" mode. I'm praying for the day TigerCage makes one for the 5th gen, but that doesn't look like it's happening any time soon. But, within the constraint above we want the safest setup possible, right?!
BUDGET
Secondly, I'm assuming that most folks don't have, or don't wish to spend thousands of dollars setting up their cars for the track. Obviously, even with a budget setup you're going to have to drop some decent coin, but I don't believe I'm alone in that I just can't drop $5000 for a pair of OEM Recaro's from GM right now. It's doubtful I would spend that kind of money on those seats anyway even if I had it lying around, as I think there's better places to spend it, lol.
Another consideration in terms of budget is that many HPDE's require you to have an instructor in their novice groups. They also require that you provide the same level of safety to your instructor as you do for yourself. So, generally you will not be allowed to strap in with a full harness system and expect your instructor to strap in with the OEM belts. That means the cost for everything has just doubled!
So with that being said, one aim of this thread is to come up with the safest options possible (without welding in a custom roll cage) on a reasonable budget.
DISCLAIMER
None of the links below are any kind of endorsement to a particular vendor or product in any way. They are simply links to resources I have found. If you're a vendor PLEASE add links to your stores and products! This is only to get the discussion started and your participation is not only welcome but very much desired!
OVERVIEW
To keep from having one huge wall-o-text, I'm going to break this down into sections so each topic can have it's own starting comment to work from. Here are the topics I have in mind, and if you have others please add them in!
HARNESS BARS
USING YOUR OEM SEATS WITH A HARNESS
AFTERMARKET SEATS
TANK PLATES AND ATTACH POINTS ETC
3, 4, 5 OR 6 POINT HARNESS?
INSTALLATION TIPS
OTHER OPTIONS (Angel pads and belt locks)
