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For the club racer and track day hero, the harness mounting hardware is usually included with the belts. When ordering, make sure you know want is included or separately ordered. The attaching points are usually easily interchangeable. The center points - at the cam lock - are usually fixed.
Many belts do not come with the clip hardware. My belts are straight bolt ins. The clip feature can be convenient as it makes the belts easy to remove.
Be wary of Chinese knock-offs. Buy from a reputable source.
i run the schroth hans which has little wings on the edges. it fits and holds a 3" shoulder just fine. 2" does seem to work easier with a standard hans device although 3" works
also should add these to your list. this is a link to the ones i bought but there is plenty of others on the market. in an impact the forces can do all kinds of wacky things, these little guys keep your harnesses from sliding around on the roll bar
1) 6pt or 7pt? Originally (I was racing at the time, long ago) submarine belts first appeared, motivated in part by Jochen Rindt's death in practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix. There was either a single strap (5pt) or dual straps around the thigh (6pt) that were required in formula cars. 6pt now dominates, but the single strap has re-emerged as a 7th strap. It is called the "negative G" belt with its role being to keep the driver firmly in their seat during a roll-over. In 2019, especially in an S2000 which will have minimal roll-over protection (height of the bar above the driver's head), the 7pt system seems like a good idea.
2) How do the anti-submarine belts connect to the harness? In the Sabelt picture above, I believe they connect to the buckle. Often they are part of a t-bar that connects to buckle in one piece. This can be uncomfortable. A common mount for formula cars is to route them through a loop on the lap belt and then retain them with the tab of the shoulder harness. Schroth has a setup they call hybrid where they connect via the tab of the lap belt.
3) 2" or 3"? This is commonly thought of as a dogbone or straight 3" shoulder harness. That is one aspect, and the dogbone definitely sits better in the HANS device channel. If the HANS device runs down the chest (some new ones don't) it doesn't really make any difference. But there is also the issue of 2" vs 3" lap belt. From Schroth: "The Iliac Crest is the part of the pelvic bone that sticks out above the hips. 2" webbing fits entirely within that crest, where 3" webbing rides over the tips of the crest. The 3" webbing has less surface area by percentage than the 2" webbing which will cause more bruising on impact as "hot-spots" of force develop where the belt is making contact with the pelvic bone. Since the 2" webbing rides inside the crest it can be worn as much as 1" to 2" tighter and at the same time is more comfortable. Since the 2" webbing fits well within the Iliac Crest of the pelvis, it is less likely to slide up above the crest and cause submarining - a condition where the body slides down below the lap belt possibly causing internal organ damage."
4) Are you restraining your arms? Formula cars use arm straps. I use arm straps. Some sedan drivers think window and inside nets are a solution. Arm straps keep your arms from flailing around, including hitting things inside the cabin/cockpit. They don't have to fly out of the car for your limbs to be injured. Saying the driver just suffered a broken arm doesn't remove the fact that they have a broken arm. Some race suits have the arm part built-in. They connect by looping over the lap or shoulder belt tab before it goes in the buckle.
5) Which HANS? There are quite a few these days. They were developed to prevent basal neck fracture after the death of Patrick Jacquemart. Ensure you have one that is comfortable. They vary for different seat angles and size of the driver's chest. The Simpson Hybrid used to advertise much better support in off-angle impacts and virtually no S2000s have a properly sized containment seat (or have enough space to fit most containment seats). Simpson bought HANS and the Hybrid maker Safety Solutions (its founder is Simpson's VP Engineering). Since the purchase competitive advertising that puts the HANS in an unfavorable light is minimal. There is a Hybrid version with a central back support that is supposed to work with 3-point OEM belts. It is used by some testing engineers (3rd hand info). Some HPDE instructors get them because new students sometimes don't have racing belts. It isn't supposed to be as good and driving hard around a race track at over 100mph with a 3pt OEM belt designed for impacts under 60mph is...well...something I wouldn't do.
6) Helmet Removal All of this stuff is for the unexpected and rare incident when the driver is involved in a serious crash. Many regular track day drivers have seen wrecked cars. Maybe the driver was hurt. Maybe not. But if there is a spinal injury pulling the helmet off won't help. For about a decade there has been a helmet ejection bladder than slips into the helmet and can be inflated to pull the helmet off by applying pressure inside the helmet to the top of the head. Inexpensive. Some safety crews have a version that can be inserted after the crash. Roux helmets have their own system that uses a strap over the head with tabs on the side to lift the helmet off. There are a lot of reasons to like Roux helmets (builtin radio connections, builtin coolings, builtin water feed) for much less than high-end helmets, but more than the less expensive helmets.
In addition to other feedback, I recommend a harness with "pull-up" lap belts rather than "pull-down." I got pull-down and they are really hard to tighten by yourself. Pull-down probably works better for people who have pit crew tightening their belts.
Maybe think about a harness from CROW, they are very soft and very comfortable and only about $200 per side. You can also send them in and get them re-webbed for 60 bucks or so, I just sent some in after an accident and they came back brand new but with my old hardware. The camlok has a very smooth feel to it btw
04-24-2019, 04:25 PM
