Stinkycheezmonky

'99-00 Civic, Sparco seats and belts, hard frontal impact (on the street). Passenger was ejected. Pretty self-explanatory.

Atmosfear

iTrader: (18)

No bueno

Erik95LS

I imagine a cusco/safety21 "cage" would do some similar things.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

All in the name of being cool on the street....
Not so cool recovering from injuries is it?

Newbies learn long, and hard from this...

Thanks for posting this Adam. It should wake up those who do use them.

VTECIntegra9

paperclips are stronger

kristo

Since this thread is supposed to be directed at noobs, you might wanna add what is the correct way to fix belts (for being noobs, we wouldn't know).

For you experienced drivers it probably is, for us noobs it isn't, so please do explain.

I'm sure you all don't want to appear as saying 'hey, look at those stupid noobs'.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

Simple ... Dont use a harness bar.
Whats even smarter... if its a street car.. NO cages.

Your street car's stock seat belt unit will protect you better than the harness bar.
If the passenger was ejected.. chances are he submarined right out of the harness.
4 points suck and dont keep you securely fastened in the car.

night

submarine + ejected = ouch

get RIGHT

careawholelot

wow

Ryank327

Man and to think about 4 years ago I almost put that exact same setup in my 99 Si. I ended up changing my mind cause of the stories I heard of people cracking their heads open on the bars.

Also, what do you mean by submarined? Like he went head first out of the windshield?

night

sliding under the seat belt.
3 point harness your body bends over the top, holding you centered in the belt.
4 point with chest and hips secured leaves leg weight to pull you free underneath
5 point, the crotch belt holds you in the seat

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

word!!!

6 point holds both legs and not your Privates!
much safer!

YellowKahuna

Dang!!!!

Supa Troopa

Man that is some scary stuff. Thanks for the post.

Showed this to a friend and he is defending the product... Says that it did good for the price they are worth.. I can't get him to see it for what it is... sigh....

Natural Aspirations

I was always under the impression the proper/safer way to use a harness bar was only to use it as a belt guide and not an anchor point to allow for proper belt angle.

Being said my setup is still not ideal, 5 point harness and fixed back seats with no roll bar. I've been looking into the s&w roll bar but I don't know that I have the skills to properly install one. I've actually considered using the harness bar in the manor mentioned above.

Stinkycheezmonky

Sure! First, see how the bar is bent right in the middle? That was apparently caused by the belts pulling the bar forward (from the passengers being thrown forward when they hit whatever they did). That alone is just TERRIBLE. Either through design, construction, or material choice, something got really f*cked up there. I've seen plenty of accidents on track and otherwise with a rollbar/cage where that did not happen, and the occupants remained properly secured. Hell, I've been in one, a front-end collision into a tirewall, and everything worked right.

While the design of the bar does leave a lot to be desired, I'm thinking its just too small of a diameter with too thin of a wall thickness. Both of those = weak bar.

Second, the passenger was thrown through the windshield. This probably happened because when the bar bent the shoulder straps went slack and no longer held him/her in place, allowing them to come free. A lap-belt alone will NOT save you here. If you're curious about just what happens to the body in an accident, there are some great crash testing videos on youtube. It is an eye-opener.

Ultimately, people will continue using this, and thats their decision. For autocrossing its probably still fine, as the point is to hold you in place better than the stock 3-point belt and it does that (which is what a lot of people say: "it works well for holding me in" Have they crash-tested it?). However, the big assumption there is that you won't hit anything. Chances are slim, but not impossible. On the street, well... You can say, "Oh, I won't hit anything, I'm a safe driver" but then look at this guy. What I really wanted to do here is just make people aware of the potential consequences of a product choice, not instill fear.

Also:
Sparco's website shows the bar used as a guide and as an achor point (with the shoulder belts wrapped around it). As for skills to install a rollbar, if its a bolt-in and you can use a drill, you have the skills There are some tutorials floating around that walk you through it pretty well.

Ask him what it did good exactly. Because what it DIDN'T do was the only thing it was designed for: hold someone in place.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

Good for the price they are worth... I guess your friend doesn't really value his life or livelihood.
Safety in my opinion doesn't have a price!
Sometimes you cant convince the masses even with concrete proof.
Lets hope he never finds out the hard way.

gabebauman

WOW!...I never was a fan of them before...now it's solid evidence for me not to be.

Em1LuiSiR

oh damn

unusual71

wow, scary how bad that bar bent. The company should be held responsible considering how products like this are marketed. The crash doesn't seem to be all that bad considering the car wasn't reduced to a twisted pile of rubbish. I guess with that being said, it should be almost common sense as to why it was a bad idea to begin with but maybe people just aren't aware of the kind of forces involved in a crash.

I will be showing this to all my friends who asked me about products like this and wondered why I gave them such an earfull lol.

Root of all Evil

Serious question here. Can your ********* be crushed by 5 point harness? I've been in a severe crash with stock belt and it performed well. Some bruising and general soreness but junk was unscathed.

Bruckhoff_34

wow I havent been online or posted in quite a while.... but damn that is crazy. ill stick to my factory seat belts. my buddy also had one of these on his gsr and the metal felt very thin...

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

I'd imagine it could with it being right there in close proximity with your "junk"
One of the main reasons i decided to get a six point.

kristo

Do I understand/see that a Sparco bar was used?

Further experienced opinions on what's a good/safe setup (seetstyle, beltstyle, anchorages) are welcomed.