As I mentioned in one of my prior posts, I ordered Schroth Porsche GT3 2x2 silver 6 point harnesses. I have had these before and love them, plus they have metal ends made to fit Porsche’s carbon fiber seats OEM mounting points. These also allow you to keep your street 3 point belts so you can have a dual purpose car.
But there is a known problem that needs to be addressed. The driver seat has a cutout in the seat floor to allow the sub-belts to pass thru, but the passenger seat does not. The reason is due to DOT regulations where a pressure sensor is required in the passenger seat right where the cutout is meant to go. So your options are to have 5 or 6 point belts for the driver but then just street belts for the passenger, or you go with 4 point belts for both the driver and passenger, or you need to cut a hole into your expensive Porsche carbon fiber passenger seat.
The issue with just putting racing belts for the driver is that most HPDE and racing organizations require that the passenger seat and the driver seat must have matching belt configurations if you want to have a passenger with you on the track. The issue with just going for 4 points is that they are fundamentally less safe than 5 or 6 points (however the difference might be minor if you get the proper 4 point such as Schroth’s Porsche belts). That leaves the third option of cutting into your expensive passenger seat which sounds difficult but is actually easy if you take your time.
I wanted the maximum safety I could get for the track so I opted for cutting into the seat. I had my race shop (Edge Motorworks) do this for me after I researched how it needed to get done. I first removed the seat inserts which are just velcroed down. The driver side insert has a pass thru hole in the fabric to accommodate the sub-belts. The driver side seat has a pass thru hole in the seat shell but I wanted that widened so that the belts could be pushed thru and out of the way when on the street.
The passenger seat is more complicated. The first problem is that when you remove the seat insert you will notice there is no pass thru in the fabric for the belts so you will need an upholstery shop to modify the insert. Luckily it’s a small job as the insert is designed to make his rather easy. Alternatively you can buy custom made inserts with the pass thru already created. The next challenge is that you need to reposition the seat sensor so you have room for the cutout in the shell. Then you need to take your time and cut into the carbon fiber shell to make a pass thru hole for the belts (again for my purpose I wanted that large enough to hide the belts when on the street). When carbon fiber is cut it becomes very sharp which could damage the belts so we covered the edge of the hole with automotive rubber trimming.
Edge Motorworks did a great job. They took their time and made the cutouts perfect, in fact they look factory. I now have 6 points for both the driver and passenger that I can get out of the way for the street yet simply pull out for the track. The silver belts match the silver trim of the car perfectly. For what it’s worth this is the most expensive of the three options. The least expensive option that still increases your safety is to go with the specialty 4 points by Schroth, but as with all of my car builds I rarely go with the easy or less expensive option.