metalsaber

iTrader: (9)

WOW. Intense article.

Robevo RS

iTrader: (16)

there is a reason why things have expire date on them. It is your call you want to go on track with expired seats or belts, but when they will fail no one can be blamed for , but yourself. And yes racing seats can be broken and seat belts can fail, specially after they old enough to became "rigid". Fatigue and age doesnt match really well in racing. I dont try to be smart here just share my opinion and experience. HPDE or not, you will going fast i assume, and that is a factor , not which club you are racing with. And anyone who let you run expired safety gears shouldnt be even close to the race track. The stock set up is safer then an expired "race" set up/ of course not race car without cage/

Rob

apex electric

It's to bad most belts are thrown away because of ratings. If you kept new belts in a box for more than 3 years they are probably fine. The ratings are to protect manufactures from belts being left in the sun for 3 years on a dirt track car in the back of a farmers barn.

obzezzed350

For what they cost to replace, is it really that big of a deal to replace them when they expire? Thats why I use the Scroth, FIA rated and are good for 5 years.

One another note, the most dangerous mod you can do to your track car is install harnesses without a proper roll bar/cage. Most people take the cheap route and installs a Sparco harness bar and instantly puts their life at risk.

xtnct

iTrader: (33)

I went though a similar project myself last year. You may want to add some extra custom plates under your bolt-in bar. Here are details of mine: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/mo...ng-plates.html

I went with Schroth Clubman belts ($200 new). I picked up some Sparco FIA seats as well. I use an R3 neck device.

You will potentially run into issues with a seat bracket. I had to get a custom one made to make things right. Details in here: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/mo...nightmare.html

honda-guy

iTrader: (55)

safety equipments work together as a system. once you install a harness, you'll need all the other safety equipment to go with it. a proper seat for the harness. a roll bar in the event that the roof collapse and you can't move sideway and get crushed. then you'll need a head/neck restraint. imagine what happens to your head with a heavy helmet on it when your body stop from 100 mph and nothing to hold your head back. if you're unable use all these together, then factory equipment would be more safe.

i did a lot of research when i was looking for a head/neck restraint, and settle on the Hybrid Pro Rage. it provides protection on angular impact that the HANS does not. and it relies on center buckle, not just the shoulder straps. some of the model will even work on oem 3-point seat belts, which instructors like to use.

i've been using the Hybrid Pro Rage for a year and very happy with it. i don't even notice that i'm wearing it when i'm strapped in. although it will restrict turning your head side to side, makes it hard to turn your head when backing out, so i don't tighten my shoulder straps until i'm in the hot pit.

http://www.safetysolutionsracing.com/

as for wearing glasses with full face helmets, i have no problem wearing the two different glasses i have with full face. put the helmet on first then put the glasses on.

next on my list is a fire distinguisher and a lighter fire suit. i had a fire suit last year but didn't wear it much because it was a thick and heavy 3 layer. i'll have to spend a little more money and get a lighter suit this year.

metalsaber

iTrader: (9)

That right there is the trick I use.

apex electric

I know I am repeating myself but do not use competition belts without a roll bar! If you roll the car onto it's roof the belts will hold you while the roof collapses. When I did Time Trial in my Evo 8 I bought a inexpensive set of Crow latch link belts and used the waist belt only. This way while driving the car my butt stayed in the seat and in the event of a roll over I could still lean over the center console in the stock seat. I saw a wreck at Lime Rock were the passenger side of the roof came down to the door with the instructor (in a stock seat belt) crushed against the center console. The driver was wearing competition belts held upright in the seat but the roof came down on a angle, saving his life! If you want the extra safety and control with competition belts, use them with a competition roll bar/cage.

delongedoug

iTrader: (20)

Well, I put my order in today. Went with the OMP RS-PT for me and OMP TR for the passenger, G-Force 6pt camlock and the standard Autopower 4pt Race rollbar. Thanks for the help guys. I'll check back when it's all together or if I have installation questions.

delongedoug

iTrader: (20)

Ok, which do you recommend installing first to make things easier? Seats or roll bar?

kekek

iTrader: (22)

Haven't done it myself but I would do this:

1) Remove OEM front seats

2) Install roll bar

3) Install harness hardware

4) Install new front seats

That way there is plenty of working room for each step.

Balrok

iTrader: (15)

It's best to pull the seats and carpet out/away so you got plenty of room to work with for the bar. Remember as most of us have said over and over, have a friend or shop or yourself weld in a reinforcement plate for the bottom connections. The carpet will cover it back up nicely if done right.

Loser

iTrader: (9)

I too was concerned about the small base plates and decided to go for larger plates after seeing boomn29's pictures. Greg from RKT did a really nice job for me. I highly recommend them for their decades of experience building rally cars and cages.


- Char

WarmPepsi

iTrader: (35)

it's really a tough call. Especially with a mixed use car...

I've gone bolt-in, i've had full race, and now, i'm running a harness bar.

You just have to judge the feasibility of what you're running. With a bar, you'll end up driving the car less, as no matter how much padding, you're dead if you whack your head on a bar (even if it's behind you).

Highly recommend 5 or 6 points if you're doing it. I've run schroth, then simpson, and i'm back to schroth. Simpsons were wider, and fit over the hans just fine.

You can never spend too much on safety gear, thats for sure, but it just comes to a point of "whats really practical". My 3rd car will be a street car, with super limited track events... So for the 360 days, a roll bar is a hazard to me. I throw the harness bar in before events, and normally pull it out afterwards.

Stay safe, I think you're definitely going in the right direction. And yeah, it's one thing to buy expired stuff, it's something else to buy it, and after 3 years, it expires, and you continue to run it... knowing the car has been garaged, and after physically inspecting the belts, they're good to go. Again, can't spend too much on safety.

delongedoug

iTrader: (20)

Bumping this up as everything is all installed and ready to go for the season. I'll summarize my lessons learned and conclusions.

First off, this is for mid level HPDE only. I know it's not as good as a $5k weld in cage, so spare your diatribes.

Roll bar: Jeff (Solo II Evo) and I put my roll bar in with ease. First time for both of us and it was eerily simple with how things usually go working on cars. Kris (justboosted02) ordered the 6pt. That also went in pretty easily. The most time consuming thing was having to drill all the holes for the front of the cage. Fitment for both units was spot on except for one or two bars on the 6pt which were easily trimmed with a band saw. The units went into the car with minimal clearance. Very impressed with Autopower in this regard. Being bolt in means we were able to add and remove the units in minutes as well. Huge plus.

Lets talk roll bar plates. Going with 1/4" stainless steel, these things are beeeeeefy (search thread on here for info). Very heavy and so thick that the perfectly tight fitting roll bar would not fit the plates under them, so out came the headliner. With the carpet already gone, I went ahead and ditched the rear deck, rear door cards and some other excess interior items. I'm all in on making it a track car at this point.

Seats: You would think OMP seats, OMP side mount brackets and OMP seat bases would all line up nicely with their pre-drilled holes, right? Bzzzzzt! WRONG! Both Kris and I had to drill our seat bases to get the side bracket holes to line up with the seat base. Not a particularly difficult task with a drill press, but annoying when you buy products from the same manufacturer that are pre-drilled but don't line up with each other. Less than thrilled with that aspect, but am pleased with OMP's stuff otherwise. I went with the RS-PT seat for myself and TRS for the passenger while Kris got a pair of TRS's. A $370 FIA rated seat is a good deal in my book. The horse blinders on the RS-PT really eliminate your peripheral vision (as expected) and being harnessed in, you can't move much to get a better view, but I don't drive the car much at all and wanted that extra bit of safety for a side impact. An oversized AllView rear view mirror helps me see the blind spots/quarter areas much better.

Also, I foolishly went with the Tall side bracket and the seats seemed to sit rather high. We drilled another hole to lower it a bit and it seems perfect to me now. Kris went with the Low bracket after learning from my mistake but it isn't much better really. The seat base bracket is what is adding height to the system as our seats are a finger's width from the seat base on the bottom. If you want a low system, maybe fabricate your own base like binary. Neither of us used sliders, by the way. Glad my seat position is great in relation to the pedals as it's kind of set in stone as a unit, absent more measuring, testing and drilling.

FYI: The bolts that go into the seat itself are M8x1.25

Harnesses: I'll focus on the sub belt and lap belts since the shoulder harnesses are pretty straight forward. I mounted the outside lap belt with the OEM seatbelt bolt. Kris realized the OMP eye bolts fit perfectly and went with the 3" clip end. I may move to this setup now that I know it works. We both mounted the inside lap belt to the OMP seat base tab with a nut, bolt, washer combo.

For the sub belt, we went different routes. I chose to drill the floor, use OMP eye bolts, backing plates/nuts and then 4"x4" oversized backing plates as well. If the floor was evenly flat, this would have been easier. However, there is a wide "rail" down the center of both seats that must be strattled, pushing the mounts a little farther apart than I planned. Also, be careful of the lines under the driver's seat! I drilled from underneath so I was sure to avoid them. With the extra backing plates, I'm comfortable with the sub belt install. I didn't spend more than a minute checking out the way Kris did it, but he clipped to the seat base bracket. It looks to come down and back a bit from the seat hole and looks ok.

Well, that's about it. It wasn't too much work. Nice to be working in the car rather than under it for a change.