Need help selecting a safety harness

[Jim Crate]

>Well I'll tell him the main one, because it wasn't obvious to me until I
read
>it here (it might have even been a post from you). Don't ever run race
>harnesses without a roll bar because if your car rolls, you won't be able to
>duck. Not a good thing.

This is not as sure a thing as everyone things.  Stock seats are extremely
flimsy.  When I got rear-ended, I didn't get hit that hard and my seat bent
halfway back.

A friend of a friend was instructing in a BMW that got upside down and
smashed
flat at the track.  The driver and instructor escaped relatively unscathed,
not
because the stock seat belts allowed them to duck, but because the stock
seats
bent flat.  However, he has said it was extremely scary flying off the track
at
speed as a passenger, hitting trees and going upside down with no safety
equipment, and it did far more than physical damage.

Of course, a well-done full roll cage with racing seat, full nomex drivers
suit,
full-face helmet with HANS device or similar, and fire suppression system,
are
much safer than not having that stuff, *while on the track*.  You cannot wear
a
helmet on the street, so a full roll cage or even a roll bar would be a
significant safety liability in a street car.

You aren't guaranteed survival by wearing stock seatbelts in a car that goes
upside down, any more than you're guaranteed to die if you're wearing
harnesses
with no roll bar.  And, if your harnesses are mounted correctly, you will be
safer in most other types of incidents even without a roll bar or cage than
if
you're wearing stock seatbelts with no bar or cage.  Additionally, you'll
have
far less fatigue and better control when you're driving, possibly allowing
you
to avoid having an incident in the first place.

I'm not advocating using harnesses without a roll bar.  I just think the
knee-jerk reaction "if your car turns over, you will die" is flawed.   There
are
too many variables, and you have the potential to be killed either way.  I
personally don't believe that a rollover with harnesses without roll bar is
significantly riskier than a rollover where the occupants depend only on
stock
original safety equipment.  (Are rollover situations even part of the
standard
required accident testing?  If so, how do they roll the car over?  In other
words, what specific situations is the stock safety equipment designed
toward?)

I run stock seatbelts with no roll bar in my car at the track.  I've
considered
building a harness bar and using harnesses, but just haven't done so yet.  I
will not install a roll bar while the car sees primarily street use.  I think
even a well-padded roll bar increases your chances of bodily injury in an
accident on the street, and backseat passengers are at greatly increased
risk.
Since I have the need to carry people in the back seat occasionally, I cannot
install a roll bar unless I want to install it and remove it as part of my
track
prep.

Jim