Jason Saini

I'll post some pictures tomorrow, pfb... sorry for the delay. Things have been really busy around here lately. It's too bad we won't have any Penske photos this weekend, as the delivery of the shocks has been delayed for about 3 weeks due to a supply problem at Penske. That means we'll be running Ft. Myers and Meridian on the stock shocks. We'll just have to drive that much harder!

Look for pics soon...

Jason Saini

As promised (sorry it took so long) here are the pics of the harness install that we can't use. Well, we can use the lap belts, anyway. Brad had a good description of the install earlier because he actually did it, so I'm just going to throw the photos out there.

Lap belt mounts under rear of seat rails...


Inboard bolt closeup... just slide seat forward to gain access...


Shoulder harnesses wrap around roll hoop... 48" belts are perfect...


Finished product...

Jason Saini

As for other manufacturers, pfb - I found that the Sparco setup that mirrors what we have is around the same price. And the Sparco's look cooler. If we ever get a roll bar and can use shoulder belts, I'd like to get Sparcos.

Quality-wise I think all the belts you can find will be fine. They all have to meet spec!

-Jason Saini

E30M3

Racing belts hold you upright at all times. That is why a roll bar of sufficient height is a necessity in an open car. Without one, your head will hold the car off the ground (and take impacts) if you don't keep the shiny side up. In fact, many folks would prefer to see roll bars in any car (open or hard top) with racing belts. If you think about it, the street belts would be safer in a roll over with the stock roll hoops cuz the extra freedom of movement would allow a safer body position when overturned.

It's considerered poor practice (at a minimum) to mount safety harnesses directly onto the seats. I have even seen roll cages "loose" in cars at import car shows. YIKES. It's not even a good idea to share seat mount bolts with the harnesses. The higher loads at the chassis/fastener/rail can lead to failure. Ideally you would want to have seat and harmess mounts completely separate from eash other, with the shoulder harnesses NOT floor mounted if you want to avoid compressing your vertebra in a crash. It's a good idea to keep these and other similar things in mind when you use harnesses.

For those without harnesses, this might help a bit. Although it works in BMWs and most cars I haven't tried it in an S2000. If you pull suddenly on the shoulder belt they will lock up very quickly. If you keep tension on them they stay locked. So for fast driving there is usually a way to wind up belted with the belts locked tight in tension. On my M3 I simply tilt the bottom of the seat back which tilts the entire seat backward. Then I pull the shoulder belt quickly and latch it while keeping tension on it with one hand. Then the seat bottom is tilted back forward again, which just mashes you into the seat. Not as good as harnesses but much better than normal.

Stan

Jason Saini

I very much agree with Stan's assesments, but remeber our harness is merely for keeping us in place at low-speed autocross events. I wouldn't even dream of taking a Stook out on a road-course without a proper roll-bar or cage. In autocross, we barely hit 65mph, usually on wide open surfaces. I even get leery when autocrossing near the edge of pavement. Cars moving sideways tend to flip when hitting dirt.

Also, as far as seperate seat and harness mounting points... I agree on open track and even street driving. But again, just to hold you in place for autocross I'm comfortable with it.

kaoricool

Hi Jason.

Could you send me pics please ?

I cannot see anything in the site ?

Thanks a lot.

Mrsideways

What are the SCCA rules reguarding the S2000 factory roll bar and a harness. I know with my miata they inspected the hell out of the bar when they saw I had a harness in it. I'd like to put up the money for brian to put a harness in his, but with the Saftey nutz we have around here I'm afraid it would end up being a waste of money.

I keep trying the seat belt Twist but I either never get it tight enough or I get it so tight that I squeeze it into the (for lack of better word) clicker. My last run 2 weeks ago it popped out on me half way through the run. The funny part is I continued (shh don't tell anyone) and It was my quickest run.

jzr

What's with all these ancient threads being dredged up? Guess it's some sort of backlash from the search function having been down...
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mrsideways
[B]What are the SCCA rules reguarding the S2000 factory roll bar and a harness. I know with my miata they inspected the hell out of the bar when they saw I had a harness in it.

Mrsideways

The weight disadvantage of the Roll Bar far out weights any kinda advantage you'd gain from being held in place better with the harness. Thats why I asked. If the stock Roll hoops could count.