D Pollard

Harnesses are great things. When fitted properly to a proper seat they far exceed the safety of standard inertia seatbelts. You can use standard belts on the track, but nothing holds you as well as a harness.

The problem is, to have harnesses in a standard Lotus Elise you need fit a proper harness bar. Now the bar itself has to be of set dimensions and material to adhere to FIA regulations – but at the end of the day it’s a steel pole with some welding and threaded points. That’s why they’re not expensive. What is expensive is the fitting. With time on my hands, the tools and the know-how, I spend the whole of Wednesday fitting a new bar to my car. I photographed each stage and have supplied the lessons learnt to various technical wikis on the internet. I’ve even written the process up this site.

All in all, it took me about 6 hours, a packet of Elastoplasts and an apology to a neighbour for shouting out obscenities at the damn thing every time I cut my hand.