135i stock seat weight. Sit down for this one....

[cagekicker]

Originally Posted by Sherifftruman

The problem is if you roll the car and the harness holds you rigidly in place. If the roof deforms or collapses and you cannot move your head out of the way due to restraints, you can be more susceptible to head or neck injuries.

The roll bar will keep the roof from collapsing.

If you have no roll bar, it is probably better to not have a multipoint harness.

that is true!

[adc]

Originally Posted by mbrunner

You may think you are safer with a 5pt but side airbags are not all about protecting you from sliding around your seat in an accident... They are there to come inbetween you and any intruding metal or glass... So I am almost 100% sure your 5pt will not offer the same level of protection.

And you are probably 100% wrong - here's why:
- Have you seen any high speed crash of a production car? There are no survivors usually. Airbags will not allow you to survive a 120 mph crash, but 5 pt harnesses will (that's why you find them in all manners of race cars, but no airbags)
- Yes airbags come between you and potentially intruding car parts - but that's only because the regular seatbelt does not hold you in place completely. If you watch the high-speed videos of crash tests for any production car, you will notice how far the dummy's chest/head moves forward & down, movement which is usually being stopped by the airbag deployment. But a 5pt harness will not let you move your head more than 1-2".


Of course in order for the 5pt. harness to perform its magic, it needs to be supplemented by the rest of the racing safety gear: a sturdy rollcage and - very important - a HANS device.

Trust the race teams - if a 10 lbs airbag could do the work of a 50 lbs rollcage & harness, they would use them exclusively.