[alfa] re: How is it done? (mounting a harness - long)

[Tessie McMillan <tessmc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is easy!

Give Wes Ingram (206) 762-3931 here in Seattle a call and ask for the 
5-point AutoPower harness. He will get the harness for you at a "racer's 
price", which means a significant discount. My preference is for the 
snap-in harness ends; at the end of the season you can unsnap the harness 
from all the mounting hardware and drive with your 3-point belt.

I am currently driving an Audi Quattro sedan at the track, and this car 
does not (yet) have a rollbar. I elected to mount my harness using the lap 
bolt of the 3-point belt in the back seats. The AutoPower has plenty of 
feed harness to accomplish this, but you need to explain to Wes what you 
want to accomplish so he can order the right shoulder belts. As it turned 
out, the bolts that held the belt locking mechanism in my back seat were 
the same size/pitch as the bolts that AutoPower uses, so in placing the 
shoulder harnesses, all I had to do was unscrew the original bolt at the 
back seat, remove the lap locking mechanism, and screw in the new bolt.

The lap portion of the system is what will cause you some grief, as you 
will need to find three mounting points: left and right side of seat, and 
underneath the front of the seat. We had to punch holes in the plastic 
interior trim of my car to access some -- yay! existing! -- bolts in the 
sheet metal, which again were the same size/pitch as the AutoPower 
harness. Explore your shop manual to find similar points on the 
Milano. However, for the submarine belt, we ended up drilling a hole in 
my seat frame itself. With only 135 horsepower and about 3100 pounds of 
car, I didn't view a sub as one of the critical aspects of my harness. I 
couldn't envision any accident I could get into where I'd be jettisoned 
under the steering wheel, so I decided it would be safe enough to use the 
seat frame as my mounting point. There was some discussion about what 
would happen if the seat came apart, but I decided if that was going to be 
the case, then I had even larger safety issues to worry about than my 
sub.

I have had an accident at the track with this setup and it worked 
marvelously to hold me in place. I was able to put both feet in and hold 
my thumbs out during the event, and I was not fighting the car at any time 
to accomplish this.

OK I've thought twice about including that last paragraph, as I don't want 
to give the idea that I don't think about safety and I'm just out there 
driving willy nilly. We could go on and on about whether I gave myself a 
false sense of security having a new harness in the car, but the fact is, 
that had nothing to do with the accident. <SOAPBOX>If you are at the point 
where you are even THINKING about getting a harness, then you need to install 
one IMMEDIATELY. It's my opinion that means you are pushing yourself and 
your limits and you need to be prepared for the consequences.</SOAPBOX>

Take care! Drive hard, and have fun!

Tess
in Bellevue, WA USA
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