FIA regs

[Neil Haughey]

http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/994546964__AppJ_Art_253.pdf

Maybe useful for some, hopefully will stop some arguments about harnesses etc. A lot of sensible sounding stuff in there.

 

[John Sims]

Thanks for that Neil

Looks like I failed then:-

6.2 Installation
It is prohibited for the seat belts to be anchored to the seats or
their supports.

Bit of a pain as that is where the original seat belt mount is []

 

[944 man]

I had a link to an online .pdf copy of the blue book, but Ive lost it. Its on a TVR sprinting site, but the link seems to be hidden from view now, so without the exact location Im struggling.

 

[944 man]

MSA and FIA regulations differ on many points, but on others the MSA has adopted FIA requirements. Safety harnesses are one such point and you will see that the diagram in Appendix J is the same as the one used in the MSA Blue Book. Both clearly show that a strap angle not exceeding 45º is acceptable... I had read here and elsewhere that shoulder straps at such an angle would kill me.....

Simon

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: John Sims

Thanks for that Neil

Looks like I failed then:-

6.2 Installation
It is prohibited for the seat belts to be anchored to the seats or
their supports.

Bit of a pain as that is where the original seat belt mount is []

I think they mean harnesses John. You get a plate with a big nut welded to it. You then have to drill the floor and weld the plate on the underside with the nut on the bottom . This stops the plate and nut from pulling through the floor in a heavy impact. The scrutineers are quite anal about this and will not accept a harness mounting eye which is mounted to the floor without a reinforcing plate fitted. If you are considering fitting harnesses this is by far the safest practice..!

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?cls=MSPORT&pcode=SBRSPLATE

 

[John Sims]

Already done but I bolted it through holes I drilled in the side of my steel seat brackets.

Wrong as far as the FIA Regs are concerned but using the strongest method of mounting available on my car - thee bolts per mount through a multi walled folded section of the floor with the manufacturers captive mounts compared to one bolt on a spreader plate through a single piece of floor section. I'm reasonably relaxed about it and don't intend to use the car for racing any way.

It is nice to comply with the FIA rules when ever possible as this should provide the best indicator of safety.

 

[John Sims]

Another useful reference for mounting harnesses:-

http://www.schroth.com/installation-instructions/en/index.html

Schroth even goes as far as stating what seats the 45º harness angle is acceptable on.

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: VanhireBoys

The scrutineers are quite anal about this and will not accept a harness mounting eye which is mounted to the floor without a reinforcing plate fitted....

Provided you present the car in an obvious well prepared state I have always found scrutineers to be fairly relaxed. They are absolutely right to reject a mount with no backing plate as a nut on its own could deform the steel and pull through. As far as I am aware, while perhaps preferable to weld the spreader plate to the car, it isn't mandatory.

 

[Guest]

We built a Group A Honda Civic from the shell up in '07. We had to build it according to the FIA handbook (which is open to interpretation at times) as the car was for rallying. A lot of cages are fitted with harness bars which angle the belts just about horizontal.

Id say the way you have done the belts would be 100%. You dont want to be drilling big holes in the floorpan and welding spreader plates in and stuff like that [:'(] As you say youre not going racing Beaky YET []

 

[Neil Haughey]

ORIGINAL: John Sims

Thanks for that Neil

Looks like I failed then:-

6.2 Installation
It is prohibited for the seat belts to be anchored to the seats or
their supports.

Bit of a pain as that is where the original seat belt mount is []

I thought that too but didn't want to point it out.

Next sentence though says you can use standard mounts, clearly there will be circumstances where a bit of this here and a bit of that there gives something that can be interpreted in different ways.

I found all the cage designs very interesting indeed, a few things not in the blue book that look interesting indeed such as the support bar you can run between a horizontal bar on the main hoop down towards the transmission tunnel or rear seat. The supporting text doesn't define where this bar has to mount so it seems free to interpretation to me, I have a few ideas.

 

[944 man]

Scroth's site is a big up-selling advertisement. Id suggest that if some seats werent suitable then the FIA regulations would be ammended? On the whole the FIA isnt slow on the uptake.

 

[John Sims]

ORIGINAL: Neil Haughey

ORIGINAL: John Sims

Thanks for that Neil

Looks like I failed then:-

6.2 Installation
It is prohibited for the seat belts to be anchored to the seats or
their supports.

Bit of a pain as that is where the original seat belt mount is []

I thought that too but didn't want to point it out.

Next sentence though says you can use standard mounts, clearly there will be circumstances where a bit of this here and a bit of that there gives something that can be interpreted in different ways. ...

I'm reasonably comfortable that, if I presented it for national events in the way I have done it would pass. If it failed a big drill would present a quick remedy. The transmission tunnel side mount is merely a reinterpretation of the original mount and the door side could be transferred to the standard lower seat belt mount so there are several avenues available.