(31st Jan) HANS device / roll cage faff

"mild-shag-and-hassle"
....is the only way i can describe my endeavours in securing the most suitable roll cage to accomodate the HANS device.
You see, the challenge is to find a cage whereby i can mount the harness bar suitably low enough as to have a 5-to-20 degree angle on the belts as depicted in the image on the left (click for
full-size).



As you can see from this pic, the shoulder harnesses are somewhat higher than my shoulder level. So, this week i've been investigating different roll cages. The one I've decided on is the "Type C" cage from "Hot-Lap" - who are a series sponsor for ET.




More here: http://www.hot-lap.com/#/6pointcages/4532647708


Elgan - who runs Hot-Lap is happy to take specific measurements per car, and will fabricate a new roll cage based on custom requirements. After a complete "whore" of a day at work, I got home and spent about an hour in the garage taking measurements from the sill, seat, cage, and so forth to send to Elgan so he can get it right. I'm chatting with him tomorrow and providing he's happy with the numbers, I won't need to trailer the car across to Wales and back to take the measurements - although there is an alarming sense of inevitability that will have to happen. Some more pics:

Here you can see how much higher the harness bar is compared to the seat apertures.The top of my shoulders is approx halfway up the harness eye aperture in the seat. Ergo, it won't work presently.








Pic taken from driver side door looking in to side of seat and a-frame. The LOWER black mark is a"21cm" mark (21cm from top of sill to ideal mounting point) where the ideal mounting point would be for the harness bar to accomodate the 10-20 degree angle of shoulder belts.

Doing the plumb measurements from the apex of where the fuel tank sill meets the floor back to the front of the actual a-frame bar.

I am hoping this is all Elgan needs to fabricate the cage. The only thing I'm worried about is the space for the harness bar - there's a protrusion from near the B-Pillar which you can see on this pic which may restrict how it's mounted. Anyway, going to leave it to the professionals!