[consolidated]

Originally Posted by M3V8Driver

I know exactly what I'm talking about. I've used and sold harnesses for many years. Both the DOT styles linked above and real racing harnesses have their pros and cons, but the DOT doesn't take into account racing activities when stipulating what is acceptable. I have used all these styles of belts and find that rigging your car to use racing harnesses is the best solution for a weekend track warrior. You can put them in when you arrive at the tack on Saturday morning, and take them out at the end of the day on Sunday, leaving you with the comfort and convenience of the OEM belts to use on a daily basis. The DOT Schroth systems linked above are OK, but lack convenience and ultimately, the safety the Racing harnesses provide. They really are a compromise solution, that is, a cross between using OEM belts and using a racing harnwss.

A 6 point harness is not made for a hacked install into our folding OEM seat unless it's been designed for it. You used the word "rigged" correctly.

Call Schroth, Willans etc. and tell them you want to install a race harness into one of our pivot back seats with no provisions for belt openings at the seat, bolsters or shoulders, also having to cut the bottom out for a anti-sub and somehow hack a anti-sub bar or drill thru the body and see what they say?

You can't get the required angles, <20° from horizontal, for shoulder straps and running them thru the headrest is a total hack, clearly, you need a harness bar at the very least. Not to mention the risk of a harness holding the driver upright in a roll over onto a crushed roof without a roll bar or cage.

That's why the Schroth quick fit is a real solution, albeit one with compromises but they've engineering a system, not tried to mate two things that are genetically incompatible. I've seen crazy hacked "safety" items in ricer cars, forgive the term, and they're scary. I get the desire to have a harness hold the driver in place, it'll drop your lap times instantly.

Just because you've "sold and installed" stuff doesn't mean it's anything close to correct or safe. I've set up 4 racecars but not an expert.

It's one thing to argue about what color halos are the best, another to throw out things that put people at risk. The OEM safety systems in our cars are amazing, when you jack with it, do it with careful consideration, unless it's just about looking the part of a "racecar", then have at it.

From Schroth's sales info:

Like the Standard Quick Fit Harnesses, the Quick Fit Pro clicks into the car’s female seat belt receptacles. This alerts the airbag computer to the fact that someone is in the seat and restrained, as well as takes advantage of the seat belt pre-tensioner. This device ignites a pyrotechnic charge in the event of an accident that will tighten the lap belt. This integration into the factory safety system is a very important part of the Schroth Quick Fit Pro.

These harnesses are designed to be used in stock seats that have passed a seat back strength test.

The ultimate harness solution includes fixed-back Kevlar seats, a gazillion point welded roll-cage and a HANS device. None of us are going to (nor do we recommend) do this in our street cars.

What’s the next best thing? The Schroth Quick Fit Harness. It anchors to factory points, which means you don’t have to worry about it ripping out of the sheet metal. The factory points are load tested to withstand a 3,000-pound force for 6 seconds. It has ASM technology that keeps the lap belt low and your rear end firmly planted in the seat. You don’t want the lap belt riding up and squeezing your stomach and intestines. A Schroth belt is designed not to.

The Quick Fit Belts also take advantage of the factory seat belt pre-tensioner, a device that tightens the belt 1-2 inches in the event of an accident. The Airbags will deploy as the engineers of the system intended for someone buckled in. With any other harness, the car wouldn’t detect that someone was buckled in, so the airbags would deploy faster and harder.