It’s real shame that factory ‘sports’ cars only come with a 3 point harness – your standard seat belt found in almost every car produced. They do the bare minimum in the way of strapping you in and their safety effectiveness is so so. With the kind of driving you’re doing, a proper harness and a bucket seat for support should be high on your list of modifications. Once you try one, nothing else will do.

The Japanese have a saying; Jinba Ittai, meaning rider and horse as one. It was a term made famous by the development team behind the Mazda MX-5, a revered sports car. A harness helps you attain Jinba Ittai. Apart from the obvious increased safety, it straps you in tight against a suitable bucket seat increasing feedback from the car. The harness also frees your arms to do the job of driving instead of holding on to the steering wheel for support while cornering. The improvement in feedback and support translate to quicker times at the track and many people swear their car just had a power boost.

Schroth Racing make some of the best harnesses that can be seen in a wide variety of professional race cars. Their range has something for everyone and the harness below is my pick of the lot for the track. It features 2″ shoulder straps to be used with the HANS system. I like it simply for comfort as I’m pretty small and a 3″ shoulder strap is intrusive. The shoulder strap does turn in to a 3″ for good support around the abdomen area. The lap belts are a ‘Flexi Belt’ 2″ type which again offer better support around the pelvic area than a 3″ and are much more comfortable. Where other harnesses are a pull up or a pull down type only, the ‘Flexi Belt’ system easily transforms to either one to accommodate tight cabins and a variety of seats. Finally, the snap-in attachments are easily removed from your car if you intend to use the standard seat belt for daily driving.

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