It all depends on what kind of seats you get. If you cut corners and get a pair of "sport seats" from eBay for a too good of a price (e.g. $200.00 with harnesses), you just might become paralyzed in the case of a crash. You get some reputable name brands then safety is in your favor as that's the point of sports seats. All FIA approved seats are safety tested which is how they receive such designation. As far as harnesses go, assuming that the vehicle has proper reinforcements to attach such a device, a good compromise is a four-point harness with anti-submarining feature (What is anti-submarining?).

As far as I'm concerned, with replacing seats comes with the necessity to lose some airbags. It's all up to you at that point. I love how I feel that much more engaged with the car overall with my Sparco seats.

The argument on most forums against 5+pt belts with harness bars in a rollover is that it does hold you in place and the roof will collapse. The reason why 3pt is ok is that your body will roll down as the roof collapses.

^ What he said. In a stock safety setup, if you roll over and the roof caves in, the system is designed to let your body fall out of the way (towards the inside). When you're strapped into a harness system, you're stuck straight up. That can turn a bad rollover accident into a fatal one, as the harnesses hold your spine in place for the roof to cave in and crush it. You really should run a roll cage (even just a 4-point) with any real harness system. Harness-bar setups are dangerous in a roll.

Hmm. Interesting. But a fixed bucket seat seams like more of the issue vs the 5pt. I can see that happening I guess with a 5pt and a OEM seat, but once you add the bucket seat its a moot point with the belt. Who knows though.

aren't there some GT3's and such cars with a race set up from the factory? Do they have cages? I can't see them using a cage if the driver doesn't wear a helmet 24/7. FYI jeep wranglers have a "roll cage" or enough to bash your brains in. The 2" padding wouldn't do much with no helmet.

With a 3-point belt (no strap over the inside shoulder), you'll still fall in (as opposed to crushing your spine straight down from the top), regardless of the seat. It might not be as pretty in a bucket (but then again if it's a recliner bucket they're not very strong anyways - whereas maybe a fixed aluminum bucket with big walls is more an issue). I've never heard of a factory car that comes with harnesses and no cage, but I suppose they could exist somewhere.

Hmm, I just googled gt3 and they only have a rear cage, 3pt, and reclining bucket racing seats. I know I've seen 5pt but it must have been aftermarket.

Where do people mount there harnesses?

To their cages! :)

Well yea haha but if we don't have cages?

Then you don't mount one.

A small handful of us have harness bars of some variety. Unfortunately from what I've read here recently, the vendors that sold them can't be reached/don't make them anymore. One such vendor was Robispec.

The GT Spec 4 point rear strut/ b pillar cage was designed to be a harness bar as well and works perfectly with my Takata harnesses... ill just through that out there.

Hit up RavSpec if you're interested.

i would but it wont fit my sub box howbad of an idea would it be to use the stock strut bar in back?

Very bad idea. It's a decorative cover over a metal brace. Get the Robispec bar at the minimum. I bought one of these, http://www.the370z.com/exterior-inte...rness-bar.html But, like others have said, the roll cage is the way to go.

any way i can get a direct link?

and how does everyone get rid of the seat belt light on both passenger and driver?

Try contacting member BGTV8 Nissan 370Z Forum - View Profile: BGTV8 He helped me with mine.

Racing seat airbag light fix.

any other options? that might be a bit easier to do?

I would be hesitant to do a fixed back bucket seat and a set of harnesses at the same time. In a sudden impact where you're slowed down instantly the only thing that will move is your head and you'll definitely break your neck. I would only consider a seat retaining the factory belts. Race car safety equipment is designed as a system. Roll cage, seats, harnesses, HANS device... It's like those guys that get roll cages on a street car and just leave open, exposed metal tubes without wrapping them in foam. Without a helmet, HANS device and harnesses you'll end up cracking your head open like an egg.

Amuse makes a strut bar replacement that also serves as a harness bar. You're looking at about $1,000 for that version, but it's very pretty and its JDM (if you like that kind of thing). Check out Simota1's build thread. Contact Bo at 370ztune if you want one.

i meant to get rid of the seatbelt/aierbag lights haha

Unfortunately, the simple truth (which we could have pages and pages and pages of in-depth discussion about, but...) is that safety system conversions are best thought of as a binary proposition. Either you leave it all stock, or you go straight to stripping out the stock airbags/belts/seats, installing a full 6-point cage, 6-point harnesses, and fixed racing buckets (and always wearing a helmet, and maybe a neck device as well).

I wish it weren't the case, I fought a lot with wanting various halfway options as my car progressed, but there's always a big safety downside to any halfway solution that tries to mix the stock and racing configs. The only halfway option I did before I went all out was using some reclinable semi-racing seats with high bolsters (tradeoff was loss of side airbag, not huge), while still using the stock belts.

Not really true. It will be rougher than stock on you, but even racing harnesses do flex and stretch under impact loads (I've seen figures as high as 12" of stretch movement quoted somewhere, in a direct high-speed frontal hit). Almost everything flexes and stretches to some degree in an impact, even sheet metal and "fixed" seats. The notable exception is the rollcage itself (or anything else equally stout, but on a lightweight race car there won't be much else).

Just keep in mind that even wrapping in foam doesn't protect your bare head from a cage. The right kind of foam for cages is high-density stuff, which is designed to make your helmet less likely to crack, but still feels pretty much hard as a rock and will still damage your head pretty badly without a helmet. The wrong kind of foam (the soft stuff like a pool noodle that you see people use on Jeeps and whatnot) will protect your bare head when you accidentally bang into the bar getting in and out of the car, but may as well be a sheet of paper if you impact the bar with your head in a wreck.

Even the lower bars of the cage near the footwell are dangerous - your legs flopping around in a wreck can break a lower legbone against one if you don't at least pad them. On real race cars I've seen them just line the outside of the footwell with a big solid sheet of aluminum and/or a big fat high-density pad to prevent that. Cage bars simply don't give at all, so whatever hits them has to break.

I run BGTV8's harness bar. I think he bought the tooling from the shop that built them but I doubt it would be very cheap to get another made. It's safety calculation you should make yourself though. As an FYI I had no problem with NASA inspections for HPDE and I doubt there would be any issue with it in TT either.

Still disagree. The cheap thin sheet metal the bars bolted to is not meant to withstand your body at 2-3-4-5-6-7 etc G force pulling on it when you smash into a wall. The bar can be tough as **** but the sheet metal will be no different than paper at high speed. You're going to break your face on the steering wheel.

Here's a picture of mine I took the other day. stradia II Reims edition http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/12/unu9u9yv.jpg

The harness bar I'm talking about bolts to the upper seat belt bolts and anchors at the rear strut tower area. Or are you talking about the Robispec type bar that replaces the factory bar in the hatch?

Pics?

I thought sig11 was talking about a robispec type.

Check this thread to see the harness bar I'm talking about. http://www.the370z.com/exterior-inte...rness-bar.html

It's not for me. There's a reason NASA and SCCA force you to have a diagonal bar installed in a roll cage from the top to the opposite bottom. They don't want the harness bar to collapse. I see this bar being really no different than this...which resulted in death and ejection through the front window. This was two people though pulling on the bar which was probably thousands of pounds of force.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...pse1b0b9a6.jpg

There were also isues with proper mounting of the lap belt and drivers seat there too. lap belts and seat mounting are supposed to be strong enough to prevent windshield ejection in the event of the upper harness failing. that or his lap belt wasnt tight.

Edit: the upper harnes is to keep you from eating wheel/dash and hold you back in the cage incase the roof colapses

Edit: also the bar in your pic is legal per scca solo rules not in higher classes though it is a C-type with 2 bolted frame connections and 2 supports.

actually it is an alluminum extruded tube on wek azz brackets, but no it is not up to the task of being a harness bar.

Yeah. BGTV8's bar is mounted in the upper seatbelt holes without a secondary bar. I also have properly mounted lap/sub belts. They're still legal for NASA HPDE/TT either way. :)

actually straight bars are solo legal with two connections, c type sedans require 4 points so his bar is probably legal

I'm actually curious about this as well. I have the Amuse Type 1 harness bar with the Eyebolts but i'm not sure what people are doing to mount the harness on the floor?

For a normal 5/6-point, you can use the stock outer-lower seat belt mounting holes for the outer lap belt mount, but you need to weld in reinforced threaded mounting plates for the other 2-3 (inner lap belt + anti-sub strap(s) below the seat). Some mfgs make alternate belt setups that make some compromises in the name of being safer and more stock-compatible without all the welding, e.g. Schroth.

I have to dig up a pic of a seat mount plate i found for the 370 that has the inner belt mount built into it. Watch out for eye bolts they are notorious for making you eat dash when they pull out of the thin tube wall or the boss welded to the bar gets ripped off. welded tabs are much stronger because you aren't drilling a hole through the tube.

Seat mount plate is made by planted technology It may be a copy of a bracket sparco makes too

Yeah Sparco's base does have an inside belt mount, but I think that's meant for re-installing the stock 3-point system. It's kind of too close to the seat to get a good angle through the hole for a harness.

I have eye bolts on all 6 harness straps on my setup, but none of them are into tube walls. They're all on welded mounting plates (for the bottom ones) or welded tabs for the eye-bolts (for the shoulder).

done properly with correctly rated bolts they will work you just have to be sure that the washer behind the mounting plate is big enough and strong enough not to pull through and of course the angle of the bolt has to line up with the belt, as in it should only pull on the stud not try to bend it. like this is really bad http://i43.tinypic.com/2lddppw.jpg

also FYI FIA GT class seat mounts must be bolted or welded through 3/16 x 2 flat bar welded to the floor of the vehicle from door side frame rail, down all the way across and up the side of the center console, certain specs of tube work as well but factory mounts are not strong enough for real racing http://www.izzyscustomcages.com/imag...7/P1010013.JPG

also in the photo above of the celica harness bar the belt adjusters are up against the back of the seat so that in a collision they would either shatter the seat into the drivers back or because the buckles arent properly in tnsion like they should be they will simply snap and hes eating dash.