? Harness Bar and Racing Belts for U.S Speciale

Fred,

Please post some pics...

 

If you will be doing it just for the looks, I'd suggest not to do it. First they are not very convenient to use. But if you're OK with it, then you should consider serious alterations to the interior, because there is no ready to use harness bar for the Speciale. Some mechanic has to make it and install it which will require lots of drilling and IMO make the interior look bad.

You can also try to do it the way I did http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/143429445-post24.html But I did this to use the 6-pt harness just on track. For normal traffic, I stuff the Schrott harness in the back of the seat and use the standart 3-pt belt system.

 

You can buy all original parts you'll need for the belts at eurospares.co.uk
There seems to be a possibility to add the belts and stay almost 100% with original parts.
You will need new B-pillars, a new upper rear wall, new outer rear head panels (the ones with the audio speakers) several smaller parts and the belts themselves plus some parts for mounting them onto the seats. But you can find and order all these parts at the particular shop.
These belts are giving such an improved feeling while you are driving. They are not that practical, since you are tied to the seat but hey - it is a race car.

 

Hey Fred, were you not a big GT3 RS Porsche guy? Do you still have any? How would you compare to the Speciale?

 

I am a Sabelt dealer and have emailed my rep to see if I am able to get these for you guys.

 

These are some of the parts if you want to COMPLETELY change from 3-pt to 4-pt,

HOWEVER unless the car was built with the 4pt harness mounting points in the rear bulkhead, you'll have no place to anchor the shoulder belts. Cars built with the harness have anchor points behind each seat and backing plates, cars without and all cars for the NA market do not have them.

my $0.02 - IF you are going to try and add a harness, make sure its mounted properly, which will require a harness bar unless you are going to disassemble the interior and do some fabrication work. Fabspeed had a thread with some pics; you can see the ISOFIX child seat anchor, you'll note that there is no place on either side to anchor the shoulder belts. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/458-italia/332550-458-harness-bar-fabspeed.html

 

If you install the fabspeed bar, could you mount the 4 point seat belts from Ferrari?

 

I do not believe you can use the "OEM" harness with a barness bar, as I think the OEM setup uses clips on the shoulders and the harness bar requires the more typical loop-buckle mounting.

Also note that the OEM harness has a more traditional buckle that has an attached coil wire that has to be connected into the seat belt sensor.

Last, and I apologize if I'm beating a dead horse here, as I"m a believer of "do what you want" - but the OP asked for opinions so perhaps I'll reignite a debate:

Driving with a 4pt harness in a road car (on street or track) to me is a bad recipe. The safety systems in the car (seat, airbags, 3pt belt, et al) are designed to work together.

If you use the harness, wear a HANS - which is not practical on the street! If you have not watched that now classic HANS video (with, without), you'll see why a harness with no HANS is a bit risky to your neck. OTOH, the 3pt and airbags, while suboptimal to a full 6pt harness/real race seat/cage/HANS+helmet, is likely better than just adding a 4pt harness.

If you are going to add a harness, retain the 3pt belts for the street, and use a HANS when you strap into a harness (and by all means, make it a 6pt harness). While Ferrari makes the "racing seat", I think it's obvious to all that it's not an FIA-compliant track seat and the seat base does not accept the anti-sub strap placement properly.

OK - I'm done. I will admit, when it comes to "track driving" I am a safety nut, to each his own, but I've seen enough between 15 years of DE and 15 years of GT racing. I will drive a street car on track occasionally, but if i ever get about 6/10ths now I will only do it in a track-prepped car (cage, real seat with HALO or nets, real harness, HANS and helmet).

 

one more - if you do end up with a harness bar and Sabelt (or other) harnesses, you can purchase the Ferrari-branded and logo-d harness pads that are shown in a couple photos. They are an OEM part. I believe Ricambi has it as a listed part you can buy from them

I'm actually going to order a set to cover the seatbelt buckle on the passenger belt in our speciale...it rattles around when I'm driving solo

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
WHAT HE SAYS IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT

As I learned about all these systems several years ago I came to the exact same conclusion: this is not an a-la-carte thing. These systems are designed to work together and taking a cool looking part of a track car safety system and applying it to a street car is very likely sub optimal.

IMHO if you want to jazz up your car maybe its better to look into a different color seatbelt- if you have a black interior maybe red or yellow belts would do the trick and those I think can be ordered and installed by the dealer.

Entropy, as to rattles- I usually combat this by just buckling in the passenger belt. I think Ricambi does have those parts though.

 

I know, I do that but when my wife and especially daughters ride, the pad might help the seatbelt chafe too. (BTW I have a black interior and red belts)

 

There is an OEM retrofit for speciale - part number 70003288 - Street legal roll bar kit.
Modis says its vaild for USA but not always accurate.

 

The "Factory" roll bar is literally that - a bolt-in roll hoop that fits behind the seats inside the b-pillars and across the roof. Unfortunately does not provide an anchor point for harnesses.

I'd believe its easily installed in a US-spec car, its not available as an option in the US (along with harnesses) due to DOT rules (Porsche owners wanting the GT3 sports packages have endured these limitations).

There are a few threads here (do a search) on the roll bar option.

 

Black interior with red belts is hot!!!

On the Scud the roll bar from the factory - at least in the USA- didn't really have great mounting points. Made me wonder about it.

IMHO for serious track driving, you really need a track car. For the occasional track day, I agree, just keep it to 6/10ths or lower- and keep the speeds no more than ~120...

 

Facing the same problem with my Speciale I am also trying to find a solution...
My car being an European one I have no problem with the rear fixation....the belt producers told me that,the way the ant submarine belt is fixed it is not ok../.
Also is it possible to fix the belt on the on the same bolt than the 3 point original belt? I want to keep it for ‘everyday’ driving...?

Rgds

Tam