Mounting 4 point harness

[Cal]

Btw, the "Phillip Island 1hr" is this weekend right? Didn't get info about it from the mx5 club but maybe i wasn't looking the the right place

The PI 1hr is on the 26th.

IMO you are off your face using a harness without a rollbar. Infact I consider a rollbar to be almost essencial in any MX5, especially one used on the track. My road car has a rollbar, but not a harness any more. In the event of a roll over, your body is fixed upright and can not move sideways, hence your head falls off. Best case, you break your neck.

Cal.

[Slugoid]

The PI 1hr is on the 26th.

IMO you are off your face using a harness without a rollbar. Infact I consider a rollbar to be almost essencial in any MX5, especially one used on the track. My road car has a rollbar, but not a harness any more. In the event of a roll over, your body is fixed upright and can not move sideways, hence your head falls off. Best case, you break your neck.

Cal.

Well I have a hardtop, but don't know what will happen if my car does roll.

If I could afford a roll bar I would have got one right away, no questions asked. Either way, I'll be installing the harness cos I don't think there will be much difference if my car does roll over, with or without it in all honesty.

[zoomzoom]

Just curious, has anyone else tried using a harness with the std seats? I put it in the onther week to try it and it seems alright, but the harnesses do sit on kinda funny angles when they go round the seat. Didnt seem too bad though like cutting into my shoulders or anything(but i dont have very square shoulders ) though I did only try it for a couple minutes.
Tim
(getting ready for qr track day woo)

[Cal]

Well I have a hardtop, but don't know what will happen if my car does roll.

It will do nothing at all and the end result will be the same as if you had no roof at all.

Cal.

[rodent]

From experience, it seems the NA soft top frame can hack a bit of a beating before collapsing. When my car rolled the a-pillar more or less gave in but the frame supported the weight of the car - seats weren't even scratched.

I think the hardtop also has a whole lot more structural strength (esp at the back) than the a-pillar (remember also seeing a pic of DanielB's rolled car with its roof still intact).

Of course at racetrack speeds none of this would really count

jonno.

[Cal]

I think the hardtop also has a whole lot more structural strength (esp at the back) than the a-pillar (remember also seeing a pic of DanielB's rolled car with its roof still intact).

Umm I cut said support away with an angle grinder on the weekend. It is made of fibreglass and would do dick in the event of a rollover.

Cal.

[The Pupat]

I reckon you could cut through carbon fibre like it's butter with an angle grinder as well... That said I want a rollbar (cause there's no such thing as too much protection) and I'm in no hurry to test how strong either the hardtop or the rollbar are.

[rain902]

IMO you are off your face using a harness without a rollbar.

true, but if a person cant afford both bits of safety stuff, best buy the one they can afford. The harness will also help hold him still - offering some sort of passive advantage to him ie he is concentrating on staying on the black stuff rather than doing an elbow/knee balancing act in a fruitless attempt to stay still while controlling the car.

My road car has a rollbar, but not a harness any more.

good to hear - that way your less restrained body can flop around and allow your (helmetted) head to strike the rollbar, causing unconsciousness, coma and or death. Or worse - disablity and paralysis.

In the event of a roll over, your body is fixed upright and can not move sideways, hence your head falls off. Best case, you break your neck.

true - statistically still more likely to clout wall and strike rollbar with helmet than roll over on track. More walls, no gutters.

Not being smart - just making observations based on what i know and what i have seen. In an ideal world the fellow would be all ca$hed up and go out n buy both. He is not, so hopefully he can read all that is here and make an informed decision on what goodies to buy, or what to sell (wife/kids) so that he can afford to buy the goodies - maybe he will even decide to not compete till he has the goodies - he may then decide to go hard on the road like the local P plate/v8/ricer squadrons - that would be more hazardous than being on the track without harness and ROPS.

[StanTheMan]

I think the hardtop also has a whole lot more structural strength (esp at the back) than the a-pillar (remember also seeing a pic of DanielB's rolled car with its roof still intact).

Umm I cut said support away with an angle grinder on the weekend. It is made of fibreglass and would do dick in the event of a rollover.

Cal.

You could also cut through a bed sheet with sciccors. but it can stop a bullet. because its flexible. so is a hard top. Taking a angle grinder to the hard top & comparing it to a roll over is missing the point. The road is flat & blunt. On the road give me a hard top in a roll over anytime thank you very much. Same with the Soft top. from what it looks like. I',m convinced it had a lot to do with saving rodents life or Serious injury at the absolute least. How quickly do you think a angle grinder would get through a soft top.

It all good.....

I have a roll bar too......harness is on the list.

[Cal]

So you clowns think a piece of fibreglass that is 3mm think is going to save your life when you drop a ton on it, maybe more depending on g forces? You certainly live in a different world to me. Can you fly in this particular universe where normal physics don't apply?

Cal.

[StanTheMan]

depends entirely on your point of reference ....doesn't it?

[rain902]

So you clowns think a piece of fibreglass that is 3mm think is going to save your life when you drop a ton on it, maybe more depending on g forces? You certainly live in a different world to me. Can you fly in this particular universe where normal physics don't apply?

Cal.

depends on the size and shape of this piece of fibreglass, it could easily support several hundred tonnes if you wanted it to.

[Cal]

depends on the size and shape of this piece of fibreglass, it could easily support several hundred tonnes if you wanted it to.

I was thinking of something around about this size and shape myself.



Cal.

[mazlot]

depends on the size and shape of this piece of fibreglass, it could easily support several hundred tonnes if you wanted it to.

Are teeth harder than chalk

[Slugoid]

Update: I've just installed my harness today (2 holes + backing plates from revolution racegear). Feels really nice and goes well with my Recaro's too

As for the hard top thing, here's what I found from miata.net :

Q) Why would someone get a hard top?

There are a number of reasons. Here are some:

* The Spec Miata racing series requires Original Equipment (OE) hard tops or no top at all.
* The hard top increases chassis rigidity and reduces aerodynamic drag for better performance.

From the Spec Miata site:

e. Convertible tops and attaching hardware shall be completely removed. Cars may compete with the Mazda factory detachable hard top in place (latches shall be replaced with positive fasteners), but it is not mandatory. When no top is used, driver shall wear arm restraints, and the cage will meet the helmet clearance rule.

So you can either race with the hardtop or no top at all with a cage, but the soft top is no go. I wonder why? So if the hard top does nothing, why is this rule imposed?

Reference:
http://www.miata.net/garage/hardtop/
http://www.specmiata.com/specifications.htm (Body/Structure section e)