Lets make the definitive Harness and racing seat thread!

[ZL1-V]

Originally Posted by Inferno LSX

Ok, I'm 5'8" and my car has the sun roof. I might eventually remove the sliders.

I am at the limit, and I'm only 5'11"! My helmet just rubs the headliner. Not as bad as the stock seats but still not perfect. Time to visit an upholstery shop perhaps.

[Inferno LSX]

Come on Vern, you can make it work. LOL

[JOHNSONROD]

Originally Posted by tw78911sc

OrangeCrush made a great point, want safety, get a HANS device, they have new options that don't depend on a harness to keep it in place, they strap around your chest. I had the unfortunate experience of being a being a coach of a new student, and when he shift exiting a 90 mph corner and shifted from 3 to 2nd instead of 4th, we pounded the pit wall several times, it was a rear end impact, no airbags deployed, the car was a write off and I suffered from a concussion for the next 6 months. I did not have a HANS on and it would have helped my neck from snapping around and mixing up the few decent brain cells I had left.

i thought the same thing, that the one that looks like a sports bra kinda didnt need a harness to work properly. since i ride right seat a lot, i wanted one of these. the guy at the pro shop at VIR said that you have to have shoulder harnesses to wear any kind of head and neck device. im sure my wife had an instructor that wore a restraint system in my camaro when the interior was still stock.

please drop me a link or something if you have it. i want to get one i can wear in a car with harnesses or without. ty

[Orange Crush 1LE]

Originally Posted by tw78911sc

OrangeCrush made a great point, want safety, get a HANS device, they have new options that don't depend on a harness to keep it in place, they strap around your chest. I had the unfortunate experience of being a being a coach of a new student, and when he shift exiting a 90 mph corner and shifted from 3 to 2nd instead of 4th, we pounded the pit wall several times, it was a rear end impact, no airbags deployed, the car was a write off and I suffered from a concussion for the next 6 months. I did not have a HANS on and it would have helped my neck from snapping around and mixing up the few decent brain cells I had left.

Ouch, that sucks man. I just popped some Advil this morning to calm down a herniated disk from a rollover accident that happened in my twenties. Necks and heads are fragile. Since Earnhardt passed away and NASCAR mandated HANS devices and other safety improvements, it is now rare that serious injuries occur in NASCAR. These devices really work.

[Orange Crush 1LE]

Here are a couple of shots of my roll bar seats and harness, hard to get a good pic in such a confined space.

[tw78911sc]

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sa...FUoS7AodwwUA3w

[SPCBA]

A lot of bad and wrong info here. Seems posts are made from other peoples knowledge which is faulty and passed on the line to be faultier. Jesus Christ

If you get to 5 and 6 point harnesses, basically anything that secures you from sliding further into seat YOU MUST HAVE A REAL ROLLCAGE OR YOU CAN ****ING DIE... Like dead dead... Not funny and these posts by inexperienced people are getting worse and worse.

[White_SS/RS]

Originally Posted by SPCBA

A lot of bad and wrong info here. Seems posts are made from other peoples knowledge which is faulty and passed on the line to be faultier. Jesus Christ

If you get to 5 and 6 point harnesses, basically anything that secures you from sliding further into seat YOU MUST HAVE A REAL ROLLCAGE OR YOU CAN ****ING DIE... Like dead dead... Not funny and these posts by inexperienced people are getting worse and worse.

Let's not forget that OEM belts are intended for highway speeds and not track speeds! Moral of the story... Don't track unless you cage and harness the car!

[Orange Crush 1LE]

Blake, why don't you tell us how you really feel? LOL, I hear you, but we all started somewhere and didn't know everything out of the gate.

I do agree with you, I now wouldn't track without my roll bar (or preferably a cage, but roll bar will do for now), track seat, 6-point harness and head and neck restraint. The four go together as a system, and must be properly installed. Otherwise, the 3-point factory belt is the way to go.

[X25]

Originally Posted by tw78911sc

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/sa...FUoS7AodwwUA3w

$895 is actually a good price. It used to be $995. R3 is the only head and neck restraint that I know of, which can be worn even with an OEM seat belt and do its job. I think it's a MUST for instructors.

[X25]

Between stock seat/belt and full-on race set-up, as the OP has also mentioned, Scortch's anti-submarine 4-point seems to be the only viable option to me. Their approved cars list is a bit misleading to be honest, since it seems to be mostly consisting of old car models, and they usually add cars from the European market to the list first. That said, the installation does not require harness or roll bar (it uses the rear seat belt top corner anchor, which must be rated at 3000+ lbs per U.S. safety regulations as far as I can remember), and it allows you to pivot rather freely during an accident, just like a regular seat belt would.

Obviously, you also have to use a HANS device due to increased stress on your neck since it acts like a 4-point most of the time. I do have a Simpson Pro Rage. R3 does not even require any special belt, but is also less comfortable, so I went with what I have since I always have race harness in track/race cars anyway.

FYI, for my Miata, I went with race seat, thicker/2"-taller aftermarket roll bar, 6-pt. harness, HANS, and obviously the helmet.

I obviously do wear the full suit/shoes during the races (like ChumpCar or Lemons), but I skip the suit during track days.

[Balok]

Originally Posted by SPCBA

A lot of bad and wrong info here. Seems posts are made from other peoples knowledge which is faulty and passed on the line to be faultier. Jesus Christ

If you get to 5 and 6 point harnesses, basically anything that secures you from sliding further into seat YOU MUST HAVE A REAL ROLLCAGE OR YOU CAN ****ING DIE... Like dead dead... Not funny and these posts by inexperienced people are getting worse and worse.

You obviously didn't read this from my first post:

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?!

I might also add that I've personally only done 3 days at the track. That's been enough to realize how fun it is and to know that I need help with sliding around in the seat because that causes me to have a death grip on the wheel at times to the point of the tips of my fingers going numb, and IMO that's not very safe either.

But I do appreciate those with cages and even those without them making the point that if you roll the car and are wearing a 5/6 point harness you're likely to get killed. That's definitely caused me to really re-think the setup I plan on trying out. But I'm NOT about to destroy the interior of a brand new $47,000 car to put a cage in it. If I were going to spend that kind of money I'd just buy a track ready Miata or Spec E30 and be done with it.

I am probably able to do 2 weekends or maybe the odd Saturday here and there at the most a year, so this is more of a getaway/vacation type hobby for now until I decide to go hard core with it, and then I'll just get a race car. Until then, I suppose I'll take my chances with the BK harness bar and the Schroth 4 point harness with ASM. I think that regular collisions are much more likely than roll over so hopefully the 4 point will be a little safer than the stock belts. Either way, there are risks just driving down the highway, and if I discipline myself on the track to stay within my abilities that will go a long way for safety.

[BaylorCamaro]

Good thread and glad you started it. I'm in a similar situation as you Balok. I have recently gotten into the sport after a couple track days and I'm now addicted. However I too do not want to tear up the interior of my car by welding a cage in it. I'm not looking to make this a dedicated track car, but at the same time I'm probably going to be doing half a dozen track days during the year and I'd definitely would like the support of a harness. The OEM seats do not cut it.

[Orange Crush 1LE]

One thing that should be mentioned here is the selection of the track based on your level of safety gear. Some tracks are much safer than others. For example, I wouldn't want to track the Nurburgring without a rollcage and a HANS . But in my area, there are slower tracks with smooth runout and very few walls to hit. If my Camaro were still stock, I'd stick to the safer tracks.