Gary2KC5

Becasue the Z06 seats do not have openings for shoulder belts they have to go around the outside of the seat. I put sternum straps on them to insure they were over my shoulders but a race stuff vendor at the track told me that they don't sell them and said something about an F1 guy getting killed in an otherwise walk away accident becasue the S strap crushed his throat.

NJCRUISER

I can only say that there are rumours out there that say you could choke on the sternum strap if you submarine really hard. But I have not seen any proof of that happening with a proper setup. Just make sure you have your sub strap(s) installed properly and you'll be fine. I personally don't use sternums because it's one more thing I have to worry about unlatching to slow me down from getting out of the car if god forbid it's on fire. But that's with a full roll cage and supportive race seat.

I remember doing DE's with stock seat, the sternum strap is a big help! And you will be able to exit quickly from a stock seat and non nascar door bars.

My Teamtech Jetpilot harness was scca compliant and had velcro loop sternum strap.

UstaB-GS549

The guy that re-webbed my harness would not re-do the sternum belt. I believe the reason had something to do with most sanctioning bodies requiring a single release for all belts.

I remember getting jerked back into the car when I tried to get up and forgot the sternum belt.

fatbillybob

I have another racecar but on the rare occasion I take out the Z I use an H strap. You can make it or have it made and it holds the straps behind you since you have no holes. This way you will reduce shoulder belt dump. Some harnesses come with an H sewen in. I have not heard anything negative about this method. Best is still to have a proper racing shell.

ghoffman

Metal latch type sternum straps are indeed dangerous. One of the very few NASCAR approved sternum straps is the Teamtech which is a Velcro strap that doubles through a metal loop on one side. It works great with the stock seats and a HANS. Call for more info
Gary Hoffman
Hardbarusa.com
603-682-8073

Bill Dearborn

A couple of comments about this picture. First, it looks like the belts are not fastened properly around the bar. From what I can see the belt goes through the H bracket, then under and around the bar and back through the H bracket with the end up against the back of the seat. The end should go back through the H bracket and be pointing toward the back of the car. If it isn't looped back as I pointed out it can pull loose under the force of an impact and release the shoulder harness from the bar (anybody like steering wheel for lunch).

Second, as the belt comes around the seat it is twisted. Based on discussions with a harness expert I now know the belt's strength when twisted is reduced to the smallest flat portion of the belt. So you could be significantly reducing the effectiveness of your harness.

I ran this same setup for several years on my C5 and Z06 and after some serious discussions with the expert last year updated my Z06 seats with Sport Seat Covers to allow the belts to go through the seats. Before that I depended on a Simpson harness with the sternum strap sewn into the harness. The expert disapproved of the sternum strap but allowed that since I had the BK belt brackets where I sit on the sub strap it probably wouldn't strangle me. He strongly advised that I get a seat with a belt pass through and drop the use of the sternum strap.

By the way the expert told me that he would prefer using the stock harness system to my expensive but compromised system that I had last year. He believed that I would probably be safer using the stock belts until I could get the seat pass through. He had some impressive videos of tests being conducted on various harnesses and definitely knew his stuff. At this time he is supplying harnesses to the Hendrick team and several other Nextel Cup teams.

Bill

fatbillybob

My picture is for illustration purposes only of the H section as another idea. Bill is correct. The H bill talks about is really the adjuster on the Bar not to be confused with the H that is black strap used to hold the straps 3" apart such that you can hold a HANS and not have the belts dump while using a stock seat. As I said before using a proper racing shell is the way to go. I needed something quick and this is my what I had around the house set-up for a DE. I have I can do anything with a welder/hammer/screwdriver syndrome. The belts do not twist but the picture may look that way. They actually lay quite nicely at an angle over the seat. Dual use is always a compromise and the more stock stuff you have the more the compromise. Even the sport seat cutot is a severe compromise because you can really still only use the 6pt parachute submarine. Ideally with a bottom hole seat cushion you get antisubmarine and stay put in rollovers and give you options of 5pt, 6pt, parachite, V, T, Scroth hybrid, or formula. I think what Dual users need is a way to add in removeable sidenets which can make up for many seat problems that are only solved with full on race seats that are full containment.

This is what a full containment seat looks like not streetable at all.



This is the cutout seat Bill talks about.

Bill Dearborn

Sorry if anybody was confused with my use of the term "H". I could not think of anything else at the time for the bracket that is used to fasten the belt to the crossbar. The reason I brought it up is the harness expert found that problem on my harness setup when he inspected it 2 years ago. He told me to take a couple of minutes and correct the problem and mentioned that he had found several professional drivers that did not have the harness fastened correctly either. He said they did not believe him until he took their harness and gave it a very quick pull with his hand and it just slipped right out of the bracket.

Bill

DRKCYDE

Keep an eye out for my death then...

Just ordered one...

fatbillybob

Well Motown,

It looks like you are going down the slippery slope. Here is the rest of the set-up I used to get through a DE. It took me about 1/2 day fab and purchase of metal. The angle of the b-piller makes the harness bar lock into place so that you do not need to stabilize the bar like hardbar and some others but stability is always nice. Again a compromise.


You can see how I uses angle iron between the seat bolts to hold the lapbelts. Here is what bill is talking about with proper wrapping of the tail of the strap back through the adjuster to prevent slipping. Again this is a compromise and a racing NO-No to anchor your harness to the seat retention but if GM does this anyway with the hip lap bet I say what the hell. The better way would be to attach the lapbelt anchors to your cage, or the sill and tunnel, and last the seat as I have done.


this is parachute sub I had laying around. You sit on it which is the only way to have a decent sub with stock seats. This V sub aka ballcrusher can be made more comfy is you do formula style




Here you can see the stock seatbelt is retained but offset still this pic shows the incomplete wrap of the ajduster. The bar cannot rotate because of the b-piller angles. I just cut two paltes drilled some holes cut some 1 3/4" 120 wall DOM tubing and that's it. This size tube is way overkill but that's what I had in the garage. Well I hope that helps someone. And listen to Bill's tip he is right. about the adjuster tail end back through and also what he did not mention is to position the adjuster as close to the tube as possible because the belts will slide until they lock against the adjuster so this photo is bad

rudyarias

I had a auto trim shop make the slots in both of my Z06s. it costs me 150 for both seats per car.

fatbillybob

So I guess that means there is nothing supporting that section of the seat to prevent the headrest from snapping off in an impact except the rim of the seat as pictured in the above seat with the cutout?

Does anyone know uphlsolstory guys who do this around Redondo beach, Ca.. or is this so easy that any guy can do it?

Bill Dearborn

The seat pictured above has sport seat leather on it. The base/Z06 seat and the Sport Seat frames are the same. All you have to do is swap the leather and foam. There are also inserts that can put in the base/Z06 seat that will allow the belts to pass through the seat. Don't know if these are what you are looking for but here is the link (click on the picture to get a close up after going to the site) http://www.hmsmotorsport.com/store/s...c/seat-grommet .
Bill