It's been a bit of adventure to install a set of harnesses in my Mini. Back in April I ordered a set of Schroth 6 pt harnesses. A few small mixups later and I had them in June. Installed them and well...I needed a little more in the lap belt area as I am not the most svelte Mini driver. The race shop took all kinds of measurements and ordered from Scroth. They blow it and send the exact same stock ones back. We try again, they blow it again. Fine, time to move to another vendor. This shop also sells TeamTech. Careful measurements are taken and a set ordered. Three weeks later the shop calls me to tell me they are in. Since the shop is at the track and I was there for a DE I had them do the install between sessions. I wanted to do some data logging on the new springs (look for a full writeup soon) before I added the belts. One change at a time please. Ran 2 sessions on Sunday with them installed. What a differenece, even with a race type seat I was still having to brace with my legs and hold on the wheel with some force. Not any more.

So with out further ado I present the new TeamTech RamPac 6 point Harness with Sternum Strap, Chest and Pelvic Impact Energy Pads, Rotary Release Buckle and Thumb Pull Downs.



More pictures can be seen here.

 

gnat: those look sweet. i, too, am getting tired of bouncing around. i would love to find a functional harness bar, but a roll bar would work for me since i don't have a rear eat anyway....is that a production roll bar or custom built?

 

They look awesome

 

Those are nnnnniiiiicccceeee And of course, the always asked question.......Price?

 

I have a roll bar with harness bar. We welded on some belt guides since the harness bar did not come with them.

Please note in the picture below the final adjustment has not been made for the passenger side and the belts have to be passed back through the tensioner.



All the other mounting points are snap in. For the sub belts plates were welded to the underside of the car and eye bolts are bolted into that. They are located under the seat near the back of the seats.

The lap belts have plates that are bolted to the OEM seatbelt mounts and an eye bolt is bolted to that plate. This is a crappy picture of that.

 

The bar is a production bar from Safety Devices in England. Stable Energies in NJ is the US distributor. The harness bar is an option, link goes to the page with the bar. These are not for sunroof cars. If yuo have a sunroof you will need to mod the bar to make it fit, ask me how I know...argghhh.

One cannot put a price on ones comfort and safety on track. With all the options I've added these are not inexpensive at $440 ea plus mounting hardware.

 

Very Nice as usual Gnat. Those look great and better than the Scroths.

 

gnat: how difficult to fit this bar into a sunroof car? i won't ask how you know!.

i'm w/ you on safety. as we and our cars get faster, we must invest as much in staying safe as we have invested in going fast

seats and restraints are at the top of my list now...

 

I'm of the theory that the more safety stuff I use the less likely I am to have an incident. I've not reached the point where I feel I need a Nomex drivers suit as of yet, but I do wear a Nomex Balaclava since I have facial hair, it also keeps the helmet from getting funky on those 90+ degree days.

Ahh the rollbar, such memories it conjures up, it's then that I coined the "For each mod there is an equal mod required to make the first mod work." phrase. Or "mods beget mods".

The Rollbar is the back half of this cage with only one of the diagonals. They are options that bolt in, as is the harness bar.



Note the tabs on the top corners of the main hoop that face forward. These were cut off, ground flush and repainted. I had no intention of installing the full cage making these tabs a possible hazard. To make the hoop and the legs actually fit we had to cut off the flat bases and grind them smooth. Then cut about an inch of the bar off the bottom, weld them back to the bases and refinish.

In the picture below you can see some of how we mounted the bar.



Under the car there is tapped plate that was welded to the frame. Before it was welded into place the location of the holes were determined and drilled. For increased insurance that it would not pull through a plate was welded to the interior as well. The bar was cut to fit and the cut off plate was welded back into place. After test fitting all exposed areas were coated with paint and finally bolted into place. To matters more interesting the bar was designed using an earlier Mini. The dome light shape has been changed sometime in the production run too. Being mine is a later car I have a slightly larger dome light housing. This required a slight angle back to clear the lamp and fit the hoop tight to the roof. You can find more pictures here. I wish we had taken pictures of the main hoop mounting before the carpets went back into place.

 

That's a great looking install. The way your rear panels were slotted to be as discreet as possible is wayyy cool. The harness bar welds are super-clean too. As usual, fantastic job!

 

Thanks Gnat. this helps me out alot. I should be installing my roll bar next weekend if things go as planned. They never do though. haha

 

No sub strap hole in the seats?

 

The seats don't have that provision. However due to my stature and the give in the front of the seat the angles are correct. I did try a seat with the hole for sub straps and parts of me covered that area. It was determined that it would worse in an incident then the current seat.

 

thanks for the input, gnat. i think that i'll have my fav local cage builder handle it for me. your install turned out great, but i think i can get a similar result w/ fewer headaches.

 

Nice looking system. I was not aware of that particular brand and mostly see the usual suspects around here. Nice write up and job well done.

 

This is great. I am looking into a harness bar, and harnesses. CHRISMCS04 pointed me in the direction of this thread.
This is the setup I'm looking to do.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...83#post2046783

This gave me some good insight. Thanks for posting it Gnatster!

 

O. Just some quick questions.
When bolting the plates in the factory seatbelt mounts, does the seatbelt light keep going on and make noise, even though you remove the factory seatbelt holder(female end)?

 

gnat - that bar stays out of the way of your unhelmeted head on the street, right? Wouldn't want a concussion just from taking a corner too fast!

Looks great!

 

Heh...who says I don't don the helmet before hitting the streets. Pretty crazy drivers here in TX.

The picture is deceiving, you would really need to do some contortionist movements to hit the bar.

 

I've worn a helmet on the street, and REALLY freaked people out when I had the Simpson window net in place on my red rollcaged SCCA SSB GTI years ago... the second looks I received were PRICELESS.

 

Nice setup Nate.

 

haha, yeah there are some pretty crazy drivers here in DFW!
and it seems like you're having something new done to your car every week gnat! when do you find the time to drive?! Still haven't had the privilege of seeing your car on the streets. Maybe I'll make it out to a MM meet sometime this summer. Going to Taiwan on Wed. so I won't be around for a while!

Oh, and everything looks great.