When most people think of upgrades for their car, they think modifying the suspenion or drivetrain. But I would assert that anything that helps the driver manipulate the controls better is as if not more important. To this end, something as a basic as a good, well bolstered seat and harnesses and GREATLY improve the ability to drive a car.
The reason for this is twofold: 1) if you are not held in place securely, you must expend additional effort bracing yourself and 2) you can pickup finer points of the car’s feedback when you strapped in securely.
The Need to Brace Yourself
This can actually be far more detrimental to good driving than most people realize. Every time you make an input, YOU become a living example of Newton’s First Law of Motion - a body in motion tends to stay in motion. When you hit the brakes, you body flies forward. When you corner to the left, your body flies to the right. And the harder you drive, the harder you get thrown about, and the greater the need becomes to adequately brace yourself.
This has actually been a major concern for Clint when he drives the Protege. The stock seats and seat belts are decidedly subpar, and part of his body of technique to drive that car involves bracing his leg against the door to keep him from bouncing around inside the car. Which brings us to our next issue: picking up feedback
Picking Up More Feedback
It is truly amazing how much more responsive a car feels when you are strapped in securely. You notice so much more of what the car is doing and the feedback it is giving you because everything the car does impacts you directly, without the normal slop afforded by stock seats and belts. Many drivers can shave 1/2 to 1 second off of lap times just making the transition to a harness for precisely this reason. They are able to cue in on the car more, and push the car and themselves further.
on December 31, 2008 at 1:10 am Richard C. wrote:
It’s not Newton’s First law of thermodynamics, it’s his first law of motion.
on December 31, 2008 at 8:21 am Chris wrote:
I told Noah this practically as soon as he wrote the article. There was a little… delay… in changing it. =p
on September 13, 2009 at 2:52 pm Fraser Elliott wrote:
Everything you say is exactly right, and it is indeed amazing how much more control you can have over a car when your body is free to relax and work the controls rather than have to brace itself all the time. However, I’m shocked at how many people take this advice, and apply it improperly.
For instance some people bolt their shoulder harnesses to the floor right behind the drivers seat, sometimes even to the bolts that hold the seat to the floor. And they marvel at how strapped down they feel when sitting still. But this is a terrible way to mount the shoulder belts because it does almost nothing to stop the forward motion of the torso in an impact, but it does draw the shoulders down and compress the spine. If you see it, correct it!
The other thing people unfortunately do is put 5 or 6 point harnesses in a car without additional rollover protection. For autocross, that’s pretty OK because the risk of a catastrophic rollover is almost nonexistent, but for race track duty, it’s a bad deal, because if the roof caves in (and if you roll the car, at least one side of it will), the shoulder harnesses will prevent your torso from moving to the side and giving your head and neck some clearance and wiggle room.
Shiny side up! Good blog.
on September 17, 2009 at 6:19 pm Noah wrote:
Thanks Fraser. That is an interesting point about the dangers of a harness without additional roll bars, and indeed most people don’t consider that. Although again people need to do an analysis of cost v likelihood of harm. There is a ton to be gained in terms of feel of the car (and thus control of the car) by virtue of being strapped down, independent of any safety benefits.