156 half cage vs harness bar

[Bear157]

After considering selling my beautiful 156 TI in order to purchase a road registered track car, I have decided that the 156 is already fun on the track, and with a few mods I can have a great road registered and insured car as well as a track car for sprints. However, I think it necessary to make some changes for extra speed and performance, as well as safety.

In regards to performance, I intend on gradually upgrading exhaust, chip, suspension etc. My quandary is with regards to safety. I have seen harness bars online that attach to the existing top seatbelt mounting and then down to a fixing point at the bottom of the seat. They allow you to install race seats and six point harnesses, whilst still maintain rear seats etc. the other alternative is to install a half cage, that I image requires removing the rear seats. I haven't seen anyone in Aus doing either, so I guess my query is, has anyone else and do they know costs?

Also, remembering I want to keep the police and Shannon's insurance happy, I am looking at how far I can go with mods and keep it legal and insurable (obviously not on the track).

[Bear157]

One of the things I'm also interested in is if there are any restrictions as to the amount of air bags I can remove. There are more bags in these things than in a Kardashian wardrobe.

[poohbah]

There are more bags in these things than in a Kardashian wardrobe.

Priceless...

[Meng]

I don't believe that there are any restrictions on airbag removal, given that having them is not a prerequisite for road worthiness.  Re cage, depends on how serious you want to be imo, though installation will always be safer, it's probably a matter of degree. Driving on the road with your facebook friends is probably more dangerous.

[bazzbazz]

As for touching airbags, it may be different for each state, but in QLD altering or interfering with any safety aspect of a vehicle, especially an airbag is a $350 fine, some points and if you back chat the man in uniform, a defect notice, as my 18yr old found out the hard way.

You also can't get a road worthy for any vehicle with an airbag warning light, just as an example. (Just remember, air bags are EXPLOSIVELY INITIATED, so they tend to be a little sensitive with these things)
Also the removal of one or more airbags can completely negate the effectiveness AND operation of the rest of the air bags in an impact.

Your best to check with your state road authority on that and DEFINATELY check with your insurer as I can bet altering anything to do with your airbags WILL affect your insurance of the vehicle somehow, if not void it completely.

Baz

[Meng]

From memory, you can remove an airbag if the model was delivered with srs and non srs, and you replace with non srs parts. Alternatively, you can have it removed by having an engineer to sign off on the being just as safe post-srs removal. But as Baz said, check the local state laws.

[martym00se72]

... I have seen harness bars online that attach to the existing top seatbelt mounting and then down to a fixing point at the bottom of the seat. They allow you to install race seats and six point harnesses, whilst still maintain rear seats etc.

Can you share a link to 2 on this... sounds like exactly what I am after but my Googling is failing me.