MOVING ON UP
James Roberts
JEP
Sprinting and even racing are a natural progression from grassroots club events – and you may not need to replace your
“ The absolute minimum is detailed in the Motorsport UK NCRs, but if you want to protect yourself further you can go for an FIA-certification cage, which is valid internationally, or you can go for a certified or homologated roll cage, which has the backup of certification and approval. It is important it is done correctly.”
Roll cage kit solutions are available for most of the cars racing in the UK and while there is no stipulated requirement to use one, most people – including Snuggs – opt to do so.“ We strip back the donor car, remove the wiring loom and dash and paint the inside to make it neat,” he says.“ Then we grind the paint off the areas where the cage feet fit and weld them in.”
The seat and harness are usually the next things to be fitted. The NCRs stipulate the use of fixed back seats to prevent injury, and the regulations cover how the seat must be fitted. The baseline minimum is to mount it to the manufacturer’ s original seat mounting points, but there is also the provision for new fixing mounts to be fabricated.
“ A lot of people want to get the seat lower or further back, so there are regulations to cover how you do that in terms of body shell mounting plate reinforcements,” explains Duncan.“ Some people use a welded rail system with cross rails spanning the body shell and there are regulations that cover the construction of those too.”
In the CityCar Cup, a standard process has evolved. This involves the use of a kit from a single supplier and Snuggs adds:“ The manufacturer has scanned the footwell and made a base plate that picks up the standard mounting points and bolts. They’ ve also etched out hole locations for side mounts and created pre-cut holes, so you can’ t really get it wrong.
Adding safety equipment can be accomplished by most owner / drivers – and there is plenty of guidance available
“ That makes it a very easy and safe solution for someone who has never fitted a seat in a race car and, once it’ s fitted, there’ s plenty of adjustment in the actual seat rails for any driver. Pretty much everyone uses that kit. I’ ve seen a few people use their own side mounts, but the base plate is the crucial bit to mount it to the car.”
The harness must then be fitted to meet a set of angular dimensions related to the seat position, as opposed to the vehicle or bodywork. Duncan explains:“ The NCRs specify where the elements of the harness are bolted to the body shell, the reinforcement requirements, the types of bolts and where they must be located.
“ It’ s very important to make sure the angles of the straps sit across the body in the right way. If your shoulder straps are at too much of an acute angle downwards, for example, they will apply pressure on your body in the wrong way and push you down instead of holding you from going forwards. Likewise, if your lap strap is too high, you could slip down underneath.
“ Most people will use a five- or six-point harness, with two shoulder straps, a lap strap on each side and either one or two crotch straps. A lot of roll cages have a harness bar that the shoulder straps can connect to using a bolted latch or a loop. The lap straps and crotch straps are normally mounted to the body shell of the vehicle.
“ Our regulations cover the relationship between the harness and the seat. No matter where your seat is mounted in the vehicle, you have got to mount your harness in relation to where that seat is placed. We regulate for the angles of the harness, so they have all got stipulated acceptable angle ranges for the different harness elements.”
Racing Starter Pack
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Revolution- November 2025