Drug Delivery

The general recommendation for shoulder harnesses seems to be that they are 90 degrees to the spine or maybe 10-20 degrees below the shoulder. With the Hardbar harness bar it seems impossible to even be at 90 degrees. The bar sits very high on the stock seat belt mounts so the shoulder harness will tend to be mounted above the shoulders.

Anyone using this bar with a similar sized seat and have the harness at least level with the shoulders? I have the Corbeau FX1 Pro. I can get it close to 90 degrees, but with the lack of head room in a C5Z it's not easy. Some clubs are implementing these angles as a rule this year, so for some of us using stock seats with a harness bar it may be tough passing tech. inspection.

trackboss

I have my kirkey seat super low and the bar is higher than I'd like. However, I am not concerned about it and after speaking to curt tucker at team tech a few years ago about my harness and hans setup he convinced me that a slight upward angle is preferable, especially when using a hans.

larryfs

anything lower than 90 degrees, you compress the discs in your spine.
leading to major spine problems. disc herniations, etc.

anything higher than 90 degrees, ... won't hold you in properly should you flip the car over.

considering your not racing, I think the odds of flipping a corvette are slim. So I decided to make my cross bar higher than shoulder height.

this topic will cause arguments, and flame wars, but put some thought into it before doing anything. It's an interesting subject..

simpson says 20 degrees below shoulder height, but that's for all out racing.

AU N EGL

This is from the Simpson web site

AU N EGL

Stock seats and harness may be tough with any club. and the C5Z seats do not have the harness pass though holes.

ssdeuce

Also you want your belts as short as you can get them.

trackboss

You ought to see how long the shoulder belts are on factory porsche GT3 race cars. I can't believe they pass tech.

Drug Delivery

I have the team tech harness. When I have the seat in where I would prefer the shoulder harnesses are way too high, so being a bit closer to 90 degrees feels better harness wise, but then I'm not sitting quite like I want to be comfort wise (angle). Since I'll only be in the car for at most 30 minutes I figure I can live with it so long as the harness fits "properly".

Every year I hear about new rules for various clubs. Before long we'll need real race cars to get on the track.

I'll get the try the new seat and harness set-up at Bluegrass in May. Can't wait.

fatbillybob

Fitting properly is not enough. They need to fit and "work" properly. A holeless seat aka most stock seat should be absolutely forbidden. Most of us think like playing checkers but safety system are really chess. 90% of people look at how their belts will work in a frontal 0 degree crash. Just a few degrees offset in stock C5Z seats and the seat will encourage your shoulder harness to slip off the shoulder because as your shoulder moves the belt rides on the seatback and you loose belt retention. This is just one reason this is so wrong. Dual use guys are better off sticking to proven OEM designs or at least a real race seat and 5-6pt harness. The 5 hole race seat and 5-6pt harness really go together. Think very seriously about how this stuff is set-up. all those rules like harnessbar elevation are critical and for you guys using HANS or thinking about buying hans make sure you guys read the manual on hans set-up to make sure your system can follow the rules or your hans will not work properly. With hans harnessbar height and "retained" belt width on the bar are critical to hans retention. You can actually be less safe with a badly integrated group of good safety gear than with your OEM stuff that is crash tested as a safety system. It is not a harness bar, not a harness, not a seat IT is a system. Think system and how everything needs to work as a unit and it will be much easier to make all the parts work together.

AU N EGL

Many times special braces need to welded to the roll bars so the harness fit properly.
I have also seen and driven many many porsches that I though the belts and seats were mounted improporly.

It those porsches was mine, I would take out those FIA approved seats and put a decent seat and proper support for the seat and harness in.

Stock C5Z seats and a harness system are not acceptable for any club. Most clubs follow the PCA guidelines, which are Harness must be mounted pre manufactures recommendations ON SEATS that are designed for harness, ie races eats,

and Billybob is 100% correct here "Fitting properly is not enough. They need to fit and "work" properly."


It is funny and sad how ppl will spend 1000s of dollars on hp mods, buy whine and complain on a few 100 dollars for saftey.

Safety mods are far more important then HP mods, Not as Sexy but far more important. and saftey mods are the mods you hope you never have to use.

fatbillybob

Obviously I agree with you. I would bet anyone here that a properly fitting race seat will hold you in the car and allow you to feel what the car is doing and cancel your urge to deathgrip the steering wheel both making you faster in a road course than a 50HP boast of your favorite power mod.

AU N EGL

And by holding you the driver in place, you spend less energy "holding on" and you can concentrate on driving.