Question on TT legality of 4 point belts

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Question on TT legality of 4 point belts

Postby CoryM on Wed Feb 08, 2017 9:58 am

I picked up a car recently that has been prepped for autocross and I would like to do some TT's with it, including Chuckwalla in March. The car is equipped with a rollbar and an aluminum Kirkey race seat. The belt on the driver side has been upgraded to a G-Force 4 point "tuner" belt (see link below). It is obviously an improvement over the 25 year old 3 point harness but is not SFI certified. The required safety equipment spreadsheet states "seatbelts, factory or better; properly installed Scroth ASM 4-point harness". The G-Force belt is better than factory so it appears to be legal but I'd like to confirm that and not leave it to chance. Thanks.


http://www.gforce.com/products/harness/9000.php
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Re: Question on TT legality of 4 point belts

Postby ScandinavianFlick on Wed Feb 08, 2017 11:08 am

Regardless of legality, non-ASM 4pt belts are extremely unsafe. Two people died at Chuckwalla in 2014 in part because they were using 4pt harnesses.
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Re: Question on TT legality of 4 point belts

Postby JayG on Wed Feb 08, 2017 11:22 am

For Time Trial and DE, five or six-point harnesses are required for all drivers and
passengers running 200 Performance Equipment Points or higher and are strongly
recommended for all entrants. Also, the same type of restraint system is required
for both driver and passenger. 5 or 6-point harnesses are allowed at Autocross
events, but they are not required.
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Re: Question on TT legality of 4 point belts

Postby CoryM on Wed Feb 08, 2017 11:28 am

ScandinavianFlick wrote:Regardless of legality, non-ASM 4pt belts are extremely unsafe. Two people died at Chuckwalla in 2014 in part because they were using 4pt harnesses.


I'm aware of that accident. One person died, the passenger, when they hit a cornerworker station:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/trac ... unday.html
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Re: Question on TT legality of 4 point belts

Postby rshon on Wed Feb 08, 2017 12:39 pm

The only 4-point belts allowed by the rules are the Schoth ASM belts, as they have an extension patch on the inside shoulder that allows elongation on impact to mimic the action of a factory three point. This system has been certified to prevent the "submarining" that occurs with regular 4-point harnesses. But they are only allowed as an option to the factory belts.

As Jay correctly points out, any car that has more than 200 Performance Equipment points must have 5- or 6-point harnesses subject to the mounting and inspection guidelines called out in the rules. This also applies to non-Porsches running in DE/TT events. The following worksheet may be used to determine if an X-car would require additional safety equipment such as 5- or 6-point harnesses:

http://www.zone8.org/assets/docs/DE_TTSafetyEquipCalculator.xlsx
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Re: Question on TT legality of 4 point belts

Postby CoryM on Wed Feb 08, 2017 2:37 pm

Got it. I'll replace the 4pt with a 6pt before the event. Thanks.
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Re: Question on TT legality of 4 point belts

Postby c4s4pcs on Wed Feb 08, 2017 6:08 pm

Remember - if you use a 5 or 6 point system,, the seat must come from the manufacturer with any required cutouts for harness routing.
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