Ok, I've started autocrossing this year and now I'm looking into a way to secure myself a bit more while racing. I've got leather seats so I can feel myself sliding some, and I know I have to lean my body against turns now to counteract the sliding, a harness would help with this I know.

I think I''d like to get a 4 point roll bar, as I'd like the extra safety aspect of it, but there are a couple problems. I'm around 6"5 drive with the seat all the way back. I've sat in a friends car with a 4 point and with my helmet on I was in contact with the main hoop bar. Isn't that illegal, and obviously dangerous? I thought you needed 2 inches of clearance or something? Regardless being that close I don't like it for daily driving in case I'm ever in a wreck and hit my head on it. My only thought on this would be to get a custom 4 point, where the main hoop sits back further underneath the sail panel, but I don't know what that might cost.

My other thought was to just get something like the LG harness bar, which would allow me to mount the harnesses and wouldn't have to worry at all about being close to it. This way I wouldn't have the strenghtening of the 4 point though. Are there any other people who make just harness bars?

Also, is it okay to run harnesses with our stock seats? Does anyone have any experience with the Schroth harnesses? I've seen someone autocrossing with a set of them mounted using the rear seat mounting points, is this safe? I've read that it's safe if they rear mounting point isn't less than 45 degrees down from horizontal. Anyone run a setup like this, would it be as good of an idea to mount then there as attaching them to a harness bar? Thanks for hte help.

 

One of the problems is with a harness with the stock seats is that the camaro doesn't have a separate head rest so the belts would have to wrap around the sides of the seat and over your shoulders. This is not very safe. The second is the Sub belt if the harness is more than 4 points. The Schroth harnesses are designed to prevent submarining with a 4 poit set up but still it won't work with the camaro seats. I have a TA and the seats have a separate head rest, so I made some leather straps to hold the top of the harness over the top of the backrest beween the backrest and the head rest. I'm using a Six point Harness and just have the sub belts go between the seat and backrest. this is not ideal but it has worked for me and worked better than bolting subbelts to the same point as the waist belt. I haven't gotten the car teched for HPDE's yet so I don't know it it will pass, but I've been to an Open Track Day and so far the harness works well. My .02

 

I only really plan on autocrossing the car for the next two years, so the setup won't actually get inspected. I'm just trying to come up with a system that will allow me to secure myself in my seat better. Whenever I start actually open tracking I plan on buying new seats that will allow routing.

 

Ok don't laugh but this is what was recommended to me at the local road course my first time out. An will cost you next to nothing. A rubber dish mat like the one that you put under the plastic dish drying rack, use it to sit on. I'll help to keep your but from sliding around on the leather seats. The other thing was to twist up a few times the seat belt, what that does it minimizes the belt from freely move through the buckle. I laughed at first but given that the circumstances I tried it and it worked ok, at least until I got a real harness.

Alternatively they make a clip that you can put behind the seatbelt buckle that will allow you to tighten the bottom part of the seat belt as much as you want while still allowing the top to work as normal. That might help. I can't remember the name of the company that makes it, I'll look it up this afternoon and let you know.

 

Yeah, I twist the lower part of the seat belt around a couple times before locking it, but it's my upper body that moves around still since you can't lock the upper belt.

 

Ok, as far as Harness bars I don't know of any other apart from LG's, unless you have one custom made. I still think it would not be a good idea to use with the camaro seats, because like I mentioned before the belts would come around the sides of the backrest so the belts would always tend to want to slide of your shoulders and in the case of an accident it could actually be dangerous to your arms. I'm just speculating, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

 

Does Hard Dog Racing make a harnessbar for f bodies or only for C5/6s and Miatas??

 

This might help you out. It was recommended highly to me from people how have had great sucess with it for autocrossing.

http://www.pfyc.com/store/merchant.m...ory_Code=GPINT

 

So it'll essentially only do the same thing that twisting the lower portion does now, I was hoping it would lock the top portion somehow.

 

Adjust the seat to the location of where you want it. Wrap duct tape around the two lower belts, have a friend wrap duct tape around the two upper belts on the shoulder harness. to exit the car, Slide the seat back and release the belt. to enter the car, snap the belts and slide seat up till tight.

Harness Bars are ok for Autocross but would never use them for HPDE events, if you roll over your upper torso is unproteced from the roof. Stock Shoulder harness are designed to alow you to slide to the side in the event of a rollover.

 

I already sit all the way back in my seat. Maybe I should try driving with the seat farther forward, to give some more clearance.

 

That's a great point I never thought of, thanks!

 

How tall are you? Because when on the track I set up my seat a lot closer the the steering wheel than when on the street. I'm going to get into the habit of disabling the airbags because I would not want them to deploy while I'm so close and wearing a fullface helmet.

 

I'm like 6"5, and it's mostly my legs. I really can't get comfortable unless the seat is all the way back, because otherwise my knees get into the steering wheel. Also, that's the natural position to where my arms just rest on the steering wheel.

 

Long standing debate ...

Which is more risky?

The potential injury from a rollover or and accident by not being snuggly positioned in the car.

I ran a harness bar for years and found my car control went up exponentially, reducing the likely hood of being in a single car accident, like seen at an HPDE.

I'm NOT discounting the danger of a driver's vulnerability in a rollover crash using a harness bar.

But, every decision we make concerning upgrades on these cars should have a risk/benefit analysis.

Where I stood, and a real roll bar NOT being an option, a harness bar's benefits out weighed the risk.

YVMV

 

Mitch,
Are/were you using a commercially available harness bar or did you fabricate something? If it was an available unit, which one? Lou's?

 

Yes LGM