THIS MAY BE A TAD UNPLEASANT FOR THE SQUEAMISH. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. YOU
DO NOT HAVE TO READ IT.
I've been to more than a couple of incidents where a car with a glass
sunroof has overturned and the drivers (and passenger) were wearing
'normal' self retracting lap and diagonal seatbelts. They had slid out of
the belts and hit the road surface after the sunroof had broken and the car
was sliding on its roof. They were scraped out of the car between the roof
and road over quite a long distance. On a couple of them there was a
reasonable gap (around 8m - 10m) between the glass sunroof fragments and
start of a line of body tissue suggesting the cars had been upside-down for
a second or less before they slid from the belts. I'm very quirky about not
buying a car with a sunroof but would happily drive the Sprite and currently
the wife's Audi TT. It is the thought of being 'squashed, scraped and
spread' in that 3/8th inch gap between the roof and road that doesn't really
appeal.
My own experience is when you are upside down and the world has stopped
moving you have a desire to release the belt (full harness in comp motor).
Your head hits the roof, it hurts your neck and there is bugger all you can
do about it - although the second time I knew not to use both hands to undo
my belt and I hung onto a lap belt with one hand so I landed on my other
shoulder. On neither occasion did I have time to duck, bend, fold or do
anything other than tighten my grip on the steering wheel so my arms
wouldn't flail about.
Guy R Day
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 9:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] Fitting harnesses (of the seatbelt variety)
> Well. I've been upside down in cars with a full harness and without though
> both cars were NOT convertibles (they had a steel roof). I also have the
> experience of many miles of driving a Sprite with a full race harness, 4
> point and 6 point.
>
> Ok, so without time for ducking and diving it's a fact that with a 3 point
> retractable belt the sideward motion of the rollover will move you to the
> side and as your head contacts the ground the force will move you to the
> side if the rolling motion hasn't already done so. It's still possible
> your
> head will impact the ground if the accident speed is high/violent enough
> though while a 100mph crash in a Lancia Beta would do this an 80mph crash
> in a
> Spridget might not?
>
> With a 4/5/6 point full harness you are absolutely not going to move very
> much sideways at all.
>
> I guess Chris can consider the advice he has been given and make up his
> own
> mind. I would however, ask that he very clearly understands the issues.
> Better still maybe the list can get a car set up on one of those body
> repair rotisseries and do a back to back comparasion with each type of
> belt set?
>
> Regards
>
>
> Weslake-Monza 1330
>
>
>
> In a message dated 19/05/2010 21:20:23 GMT Daylight Time, >
> In my experience, there's not a whole lot of time for ducking, diving,
> whatever, during a rollover. BTDT, and survived. The 3 point retractable
> belts I installed worked fine during the rollover, and probably helped
> promote survival. IMO, a properly secured harness would only improve
> this.
>
> BTW, I did install a roll over bar after this, but I still have my 3
> point belts.
>
> -=Chris
>
> Chris King
>>
> <-----Original Message----->
>>From:>>Sent: 5/19/2010 1:52:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] Fitting harnesses (of the seatbelt variety)
>>
>>Well there are books with this stuff in.........
>>
>>I personally don't recommend racing harnesses in a Spridget unless you
> have a roll over bar (rollbar) because if you flip the car without a
> rollover bar you can't duck, dive, lean or whatever.
>>
>>Weslake-Monza 1330
>>
>>In a message dated 19/05/2010 02:53:18 GMT Daylight Time,
>>Chris.Rae writes:
>>
>>does anyone have any experience with fitting a race harness to a
>>Spridget?
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