Bull

Mike, do you use the rear seats on the street? If not, I would get a good bolt-in roll bar. If yes, then go with the B-K Truss, although as pointed out above, most people end up leaving them in due to being a PITA to remove regularly. Personally, I wouldn't track a car without at least a roll bar.

mglobe

Thanks for all the input. Listening to this has pretty well convinced me to not go forward. I do use the rear seat of my car a fair amount, either to haul teenagers, or for "stuff". I can't see putting in the harness bar if it is a pain to swap in and out, as the only reason I'd do a harness mount instead of a roll bar is so I could use the rear seat (by swapping out the mount) when I was not going to the track. If I'm going to end up with the thing in all the time, might as well go with a roll bar, and if I'm going to do that, I'd rather wait till I get a track car.

This is going to end badly, I can tell already.

kurt M

You might have just passed up on most of the real world improvement with track seats and a harness system. Very few cars ever get into roof crushing events and a harness bar takes about 10 min to install or remove. One person one wrench two bolts. The rest of the gear can stay as it does not get in the way.

todinlaw

It will only end badly for your check book otherwise all is good.

mglobe

Is there one you can recommend?

It was the check book I was referring to. Al else is decidedly good!

10 GT3

This is fine as long as you swap the stock high-back seats with seats with harness pass throughs. There is a national DE rule change for 08' with harnesses now banned from use with highback seats for safety reasons. Since this is a national rule, ALL regions have to comply.

I an guessing you have the stock seats still in the car. Unless you are ready to upgrade your seats, your best option would be a CG-lock for your lap belt and an autocross strap for your chest.

mglobe

I've got GT3 seats with holes for shoulder harnesses, slots for sub belts, and the sub-belt bar installed.

10 GT3

If you are running GT3 seats, why are you worried about the back seats? It isn't safe to have anyone back there, even if they could fit. I would recommend to just get a used Techequipe rollbar. Once installed, you can still move the seats forward and put stuff in the back.

For your harnesses, the sub belts have to be permanently mounted. This is because you can't access to install and remove them with the seats in the car. You can tuck the sub straps under the lower seat cushions when they are not in use. You can go with the Brey Krause snap-in lap best mounts if you want to make the lap belt removeable. Your shoulder straps will need to be wrap around, so they will stay on the bar whether you go with a harness bar or a rollbar.

Sean F

Mike, I'm sure you've gotten this advice before, but now is a great time to take a step back and think about where you're headed. It was at this point with my 997 that I went out and bought a stock $12k 82 SC for track only duty. I figured that I'd keep the 997 completely stock and use it as a daily driver and use the SC for track days (it's just $12k right?). Seemed like a good plan. Well, that all fell apart and before I knew it I had sold the 997 bought a diesel Excursion and a trailer and put more money in my SC than my 997 cost. We've all tried or are trying to use our street cars for double duty but you end up with a compromise on both ends. That can be okay, as long as you're okay with it. I realized pretty quickly that I would end up racing and could never be satisfied with a compromise car and when I did, the path became pretty obvious. Good luck!

mglobe

Really good food for thought Sean. I've been anticipating this since about my second DE. I put the GT3 seats in because I could no longer stay put in the stock seats, and I had a harness setup in the back of my mind right from the time I ordered the seats. The seats make a big difference, and maybe are enough to keep me satisfied... for a while. Still I keep thinking that being locked down with a harness would really help. I don't intend to do any more mods to the 997. It's plenty fast, and sticks to the track just fine for the DE environment... at least now it does.