Doc

Can you fit a proper harness in a 4 door impreza without fitting a roll cage or removing the rear seat?

Mark Barrett

Doc

Haven't tried it myself but judging by past experience you will have to remove the back seat to pick up a rear seat belt mounting or kiddie seat mounting to attach the rear strap.

You should then be able to replace the rear seat and run the strap between two halves of the seat.

Two words of advice:

The rear strap needs to be run at an angle between 45 degrees downwards and horizontal. Any other angle is not safe. Some people drop the rear strap to the floor immediately behind the seat. A harness is not designed to do this.

If the run between the rear seat squabs to a rear mounting point is not a straight line (i.e. there are bends in the routing) do not do it. Although the harness will appear tight in normal use, this is slack that will become VERY apparent in an accident.

If these two criteria cannot be met then you are better with a regular seatbelt.

Sorry if this has taught anyone to suck eggs!

Ian Cook

another word of advice, be very careful with using harnesses on a road car, the Police may take a very dim view of it, they are apparently illegal on a road car. They are only legal on the road if fitted to a competition car, being moved between events or stages.

I only came across this as i spoke to Dick Grimes (club official and Essex Traffic officer) on someone elses behalf.

Just a freindly word of advice, and i may have got some bits wrong, it was a few weeks ago i spoke to him.

Doc

Thanks for the replies.

I don't understand why its illegal as in an accident with a standard belt you tend to twist and rotate around the diagonal belt.

If you look at RTA victims you often see heavy bruising over the right collar bone in drivers and the left collar bone on front seat passengers. A full harness would distribute the force much more evenly.

This is an academic exercise for me. I was just looking through the Demon Tweeks catalogue and wondered how you would fit a harness to the scooby.

Ian Cook

Dont quote me on this, but it may be to do with the fact they are not E marked or something stupid like that. They are after all competition equipment. I have also heard some standard seats cannot withstand the extra forces that a harness can produce, even if they have the cutouts in them. Theoretically a competition seat and harness would be needed. Best bet would be to speak to the local Plod though, or any of the members of the BBS that are acting officers ?

Tommy

Caterham's regularly have harnesses, and it was pointed out in their magazine that it is illegal because there is a requirement to be able to secure the belt with one hand. Nobody had ever heard of anybody being prosecuted for it though.

Stef

I am soon to be fitting harnesses to my Scoob but I will only use them on track.
Having looked through various brochures, there are several that ARE road legal. Just make sure you check beforehand.

Stef.

Mark Barrett

Me Again,

I think you've hit the nail on the head earlier. You need to find harnesses with an "e" marking which either matches or exceeds that on the seatbelts fitted to your car.

Many harness manufacturers have worked this out now, so if you look through a copy of Demon Tweeks you will often see harnesses shown with e markings. These are OK.

Some only have FIA markings for international use, which although of a higher standard, do not carry the necessary type approval (the e marking)

I would suggest sticking with either Willans or Total as they are both well proven English makes and can recommend on use on road cars. Both are small companies and will be happy to help if you call them. Total is actually an offshoot of Willans with an ex-employee who got pissed off and left!

Last point, even if the harness is e marked, it must still be mounted on existing seat belt mounting points to be acceptable or you must make some by WELDING "spreader" plates (again see Demon Tweeks) to the underside of the chassis and drilling a hole through to screw the eyebolt into. Anything else contravenes construction and use regulations.

I used to use my rally car on the road for a while when it was the only car I had. Used to get hassle all the time from the police about harnesses. Stand your ground, they normally haven't got a clue what the regulations actually are!! Bit like the "your exhausts too loud sonny", "What's the legal limit in decibals, officer?", "don't get smart sonny, on yer way!!"

MorayMackenzie

Surely you would have to get SABELT harnesses, ala WRC, for a scooby!

Moray