Clubby S ready for action

[clubsport]

Viper, The cage looks great, it certainly adds something to the ethos of the car.
I was surprised at the design and lack of harness bar.

I always understood you need a short reach on the harness to avoid "stretch" and to be as close to horizontal to the harness bar.

As you have checked it out and it appears to be the same as VW used at the Ring, then you can't say fairer than that!
Who are we to judge, I assume all aftermarket parts sold out of Germany have full TUV approval, which is more than stringent.

Any pics from the outside, showing the intent of the cage.

[vipergts]

I think it is a lot to do with whether the seat is up to the job and if the harness holes are functional

Are the seats made by VW or does someone know how to find out?

I looked at pics of the Renault R26r which came from the factory with a cage and harnesses though the seats were proper buckets so this is the issue confirmed i'd say (see pic)

[vipergts]

Notice how renault didn't even use the horizontal bar that lends itself to being a harness bar

[vipergts]

Viper, The cage looks great, it certainly adds something to the ethos of the car.
I was surprised at the design and lack of harness bar.

Any pics from the outside, showing the intent of the cage.

Paul, I'll try again to get pics but when I've tried there's too much reflection off the dark glass

[I wanted a GTi]

In rallying they tend to attach the shoulder straps low down and usually to the rear of the cage. The hole idea behind having them low down is to keep you pinned down into the seat during a roll.

[Gnasher]

The biggest issue I can see is that all the TUV approval and crash tests would have been done with standard seatbelts, not harnesses.

From what I can gather, the problems occour when you add non standard items (IE a harness) to a seat that we are unsure of actually being designed (despite the slots in the seat) to use. I also can't see any way that VW would have tested the seats with harnesses (due to the multitude of variables involved when aftermarket parts are fitted). I just think it's not worth the risk to take that chance of using harnesses on standard seats without a good amount of research/checking.

Sorry for appearing to pee on the OPs bonfire but I'd rather mention it than not and then something happen.

[LRWmotorsport]

@ Viper If the harness holes are too low and the belts really do sit on your shoulders from that angle, won't you potentially suffer compression in the hopefully unlikely event of a crash? Perhaps LRW can help with this as I guess he must have some regulations for racing?

This is from the MSA BlueBook (2015 as it is to hand).



(K) 2.1.10

The anchorage points to the rear should be positioned so that the strap from the shoulder is near horizontal as possible. It should not be located on the floor directly behind the drover/co-driver.

My own two pence worth:

I think that the harness are safe mounted to the cage. Its a shame the cargo-net bar thing isn't up to the job as a harness bar. I'm not 100% sure how it is mounted but it looks like it uses the rear seat mounts some how?

I would like to assume that reputable manufacturers  (Recaro, Sparco OMP et al) would not cut harness slots in a road based seat for purely aesthetic reasons and would perform some testing with correctly mounted harnesses.

[scanesare]

I think it is a lot to do with whether the seat is up to the job and if the harness holes are functional

Are the seats made by VW or does someone know how to find out?

CS/CSS bucket seats are made by Recaro:

https://www.recaro-automotive.com/en/product-areas/original-equipment/products/vw-golf-vii-clubsport-s/vw-golf-vii-clubsport.html


PS. How is backrest adjustment different to backrest tilt-adjustment? To my understanding (and experience) there's only 3 adjustment options: longitudinal, height and back tilt but in Recaro's page it seems like there are four. Just wondering whether I'm missing some hidden adjustment option...

[TurboTrev]

Tilt adjustment is where the seat goes forward in a 3 door car to allow a passenger to access the back seat.

[Gnasher]

It's definitely worth an email to Recaro then, if only for peace of mind.