5 point harness in 914?

[piperpilotduane]

I am going to purchase a harness bar and put a racing seat in my 914. My question is can someone who has a 5 point harness describe or send pictures of where they mounted the shoulder strap anchors to and the bottom strap anchor between the legs?

Thanks in advance.

[campbellcj]

The first thing to do (like usual) is RTFRB. Read The Fine Rule Book.

For example, quoted from the POC GCR's:

10.0 Restraint Systems
The term Restraint System shall refer to belts, harnesses, straps, and all their associated mounting hardware. The minimum requirements for acceptable Restraint Systems are as follows:

10.1
Lap belts with shoulder strap required as a minimum for Slalom events. Time Trial and Racing events require driver and passenger to have approved 3" competition lap belts, minimum 2" shoulder harnesses and minimum one 2" anti-submarine strap.

10.2
Restraint systems found to be questionable in condition, design, material, mounting and/or in any way deemed unsafe will be disallowed.

10.3
Material of all restraints (stock or otherwise) must be in good condition. Restraint system webbing used in Time Trial and Racing events must be date labeled and replaced every 5 years.

10.4
Hardware should meet or exceed the strength of standard DOT or SAE approved type (i.e. forged eyebolts with 7/16" SAE threads).

10.5
Harnesses must be mounted to either the chassis backed by large diameter washers, to roll bar, or to cage but not to seat or seat rail. No more than one strap can be mounted to the same mounting bolt.

10.6
All 914's must be equipped with two single straps or an "H" style where the seat is not used for strap support.

10.7
All high back seats where the headrest is an integral part of the seat must be equipped with "H" style shoulder harnesses. Shoulder harness mounting that depends on the seat back either for position or for support will not be allowed. The shoulder harness straps must remain on the shoulders in all situations. A "sternum strap" or similar design is not acceptable. The angle of the shoulder going back from the driver's shoulders cannot exceed 40 degrees below the horizontal plane of the shoulders. Seats with sides that otherwise prevent substantial contact of the lap belt with occupant must have slots to allow sufficient contact and restraint. Modifications to or replacement of seat(s) may be necessary to meet these requirements. Seats manufactured with harness slots are highly recommended.

10.8
Lap belts should be mounted so as to approximately bisect the angle between the thigh and the spine as viewed from the side.

10.9
Anti-submarine straps should be mounted such that they will not allow upward vertical movement of the lap belts due to any crushing of the front seat cushion in any situation.

10.10
All replacement seats must be of equivalent or greater strength than the originals they replace. Low-back seats must have an approved head restraint or structure behind the driver's and passenger's heads.

10.11
All vehicles in Racing events must adhere to the window net specifications of Appendix F.

10.12
Occupants in open cars must wear approved arm restraints.

Unless you will be using a "proper" race seat with harness pass-thru slots (recommended), you should definitely consider a 6-point harness instead of a 5-point. It is not a good idea to wrap the single sub-strap around the front of the standard street seat.

You also basically have to commit to removing the backpad from the car, and drilling the firewall. You "can" use a bolt-in harness bar and wrap the harnesses around that, but it is not the greatest way to go from a strength or safety standpoint and will not pass tech at real track events. For autox or "short track" events that approach is probably OK and allowed.

In my last teener, I used the expensive - but wonderful - Schroth Profi 5-point cam-locks (available from Sube Sports, OG Racing, etc). They supply high-grade hardware including backing plates. I used the eye-bolts and clip-in hardware so that the belts could be unclipped and removed from the car when not at the track. Very convenient. I used the Corbeau Forza race seats, which are an inexpensive FIA approved tube frame seat with 5 harness slots. They fit well in the 914, with the backpad removed. There is a write-up in the tech articles on this site, and also some pics and short commentary here:

http://www.nosubstitute.org/914/seats

The harnesses will also come with some basic installation guidelines. The overall gist of the procedure is that you do not want an extreme angle from the mounting point to your body; in other words, the sub strap should be more or less vertical from the car floor up and the shoulder harnesses should be more or less straight from the firewall to your shoulders. An angle of something like 10-30degs (IIRC) is OK.

One thing that's cool about the 914 is that the lap belts bolt right in to the stock receiver locations -- no mods, no drilling. You can keep your current stock seat belts with the harnesses too, which is nice for "dual purpose" cars.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Amen to all of what Chris wrote!

In my area (PCA Zone 7), there is no restriction about having two belts sharing the same mounting point. So I have the dual sub straps and the lap belt anchored at the stock lap belt attachment. I am also allowed to have the shoulder straps fastened directly to the harness bar, so that's what I did.

I would not be allowed to run with POC, so if that were on my agenda I would not be a very happy camper. SCCA would also have something of a problem with the shoulder belt in particular (I think), but I haven't researched that to be certain.

RTFRB--Read The Rule Book.

--DD