rallying up

[waterboy]

Hi all
After many hours computer searching for rally seats (harness friendly) and a half roll cage i seem none the wiser, particularly with regards to the seats. They will be going into an S3 coupe. Any advice or experiences on this matter would be of great help.
Regards
Simon

[Scott]

Hi Simon

Many years ago I fitted some seats and harness belts mainly for safety reasons as I used to do a lot of touring.
I have Cobra Monaco seats with Willans harnesses and these all fitted without too much bother. It helps there are built in eyebolt fixings behind the rear seats for the harnesses to fit to.
Can't help you on the roll cage front but a quick 'google' shows that there are companies out there who do them!

[lancialulu]

Simon

Have you tried OMP for a roll cage? I have one fitted to my HF. It was for a Fulvia Coupe but still needed tweaking to fit onto the rear fixings. It has demou table front section and door bars so you can mix and match so to speak. I also sourced through scouring ebay some 80's OMP bucket seats which just fitted but I found them uncomfortable and sold them on. They are now in a Stratos!! I went back to lightweight Fanalone seats which I have old style 4 point OMP harnesses.

Moral keep eys pealed on ebay!!

Tim

[angelorange]

OMP is fine but Sparco cage is built to a slightly higher spec. Another option is Sassa:

http://www.sassarollbar.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=40

As for seats try Sparco/Omp/Recaro

For historic seats Fusia style are made by D'esser in italy.

[Jai Sharma]

In days gone past I believe I had an OMP cage in my Fulvia. As has been mentioned there is a helpful mounting (at least one) on the rear parcel shelf for belt(s).
One thing to be aware of is that for competition purposes seats are "lifed". This is a pain for competitors but may well result in plenty of secondhand seats which have been used very occasionally coming onto the market. The same applies to harnesses, with the usual caveats about buying safety related items secondhand.
Actually whilst on the subject the normal HF seats are light but flimsy and I have seen them bend to an alarming degree in impact.....

[stanley sweet]

I've still got a pair of Sparco 'Sprint' seats fitted in my Fulvia from my sprinting days. I tried a few in friends cars and with some I couldn't actually get my hips between the side supports (being 6' 1" and shall we say a tad weighty...). So that's also something to consider. Then a fellow competitor of even larger build said to try his - these were the Sparco 'Sprint' seats. Plenty of hip room and very comfy for long road journeys. Have all the necessary holes for full harness etc. That's if they are still made of course. I think I have Willans harnesses. My rear cage was bought second hand but has a 'Safety Devices' sticker on it.