What is safer on the street? A 3 point belt, or a 5/6 point harness with roll bar?

[Uhcoog1]

I'm trying to decide what is best for my dual purpose car. This car will be driven on the street and at HPDE's.


Option A: 3 point retrofit seat belts from XV Motorsports with factory Hyundai Genesis coupe seats (picture below). No roll bar.
Option B: 5/6 point harness with fixed back FIA approved seats and a 4-6 point roll bar.


It seems option B is the safest for the track (with a helmet and a hans). My question is really what is safest for the street with no helmet and no HANS.

From what I can tell, it seems you are likely to hit the steering wheel with your face with a 3 point belt. Ouch!

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And on the other hand, is the 5/6 point "unsafe" on the street because there is no HANS?


Anyone have any experience in this?


Oh, and here are the gen coupe seats. Kind of off topic, but I figured factory designed seats are more structurally sound than the cheap aftermarket seats. Real leather, heated, and the driver's seat is power.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/09/4D25D1976EB54F399C4FBFDBEBA7A7A166300000-1.jpg

[john55blaze]

Kinda off topic but I like your seats what are you putting them in? And have you test fitted to see how you like them?

[Uhcoog1]

I like them A LOT. Very nice to sit in. Very good bolstering, nice real leather, fold forward and lean back, etc. I was specifically looking for a factory seat that I liked, as I know they have to pass rigorous testing being a factory seat. A lot of the available seats either didn't fold forward or lean back much (if you think about it, there really aren't many options for a 2 door 5 seater with bolstered seats). Oh, but they are on the heavy side- over 50 lb for the power drivers side, and over 30 for the manual passenger side. The manual doesn't have a height adjustment, while the power does. They have airbags in the outer bolster, which probably adds to the weight.

I've put them in, drilled holes for them, mounted plates on top, but have yet to add gusseting underneath. The seats are slightly wider than stock buckets, and the mounting holes are wider and offset inside. The front to rear mounting distance is much longer than factory. Also, they are slightly taller than factory. The two problems I have - a little higher than I'd like (head just clears with helmet - I'm 6'2 with long torso), and the fact that you can't make a harness work with them.

They're slated to go in my Hemi 1973 Plymouth Duster:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/09/dustersignature-1.jpg

[BonzoHansen]

Airbags can be heavy. maybe you can take them out and replace with seat foam? Covers seem to come off modern seats pretty easy, but maybe the bag is integrated into the cover IDK

nice looking seats!

[Uhcoog1]

Airbags can be heavy. maybe you can take them out and replace with seat foam? Covers seem to come off modern seats pretty easy, but maybe the bag is integrated into the cover IDK

nice looking seats!

Thanks for the compliment! The bag is not integrated into the cover, as guys have changed covers (though didn't provide pics of the bag).

[john55blaze]

Awesome, thank you for the info, sounds like we are built exactly the same lol! I have noticed that pretty much all of the cool factory seats that i have come across are very heavy, but my factory seats (69 camaro) were no lightweights.

[Uhcoog1]

You got it!

[Zachalanche]

There are tradeoffs with everything, and you should think about what you consider your design worst case scenario. A caged car with 6 point harnesses and no helmet will probably result in severe neck or head injuries in the event of a head-on, t-bone or roll over. When I considered the same dilema for my car I figured the same type of wreck in a stock 1970 mustang would be equally as bad if not worse. I chose to go with the cage for more chassis stiffness and safety when the car is on the track. As far as driving it on the street that way, its a risk I'm willing to take. I suspect the car is safer than stock, but not even close to 2012 standards. If I consider a worst case collision, It cant be any worse than riding my motorcycle.

[WildBillyT]

In some cases you can use both. Leave the 3 pt in for street use and let the 5 pt shoulder stuff hang behind you. Convert the lap section for track days and then use the 5 pt, etc.

I have heard of people (at least in NJ) getting pulled over and ticketed for running 5 pts on the street as none are DOT approved.