Customer Question: How Do I Fit Harnesses In My Porsche 986 Boxster Without A Full Cage?
Customer question, Porsche 986 Boxster
This one came in by email. A customer bought a Corbeau bucket from us for his GR Yaris, and now the seat is going into his 986 Boxster. He wants harnesses for track days and he does not want a full cage.
He had also spotted the photo on our 986 widest seat page, the blue car with two OMP buckets and red harnesses, and asked a fair question. Are those straps on the factory hoops with the plastic covers taken off, or on a bar somebody added? Cameron took it to Garreth, and between them it turned into this page.
- The shoulder straps go to a harness bar that is part of the roll-over protection, and the factory hoops on their own are two separate hoops
- The Safety Devices bolt-in rear cage for the 986 has a harness bar built in and can go in without a front cage, £521 ex VAT
- Safety Devices list it for 986s built 1997 to 1999, so send us the year if yours is later
- SW Motorsports make weld-in cages for the 986, and their bolt-in half cage is for the later 987
- Your Corbeau moves across, but the Yaris frame stays with the Yaris: the 986 needs its own frame
- No frame has fixings made for a crotch strap: that gets adapted for motorsport use, and one of the existing holes can be picked up to add an eyebolt
The photo he asked about
Look at the picture closely and the answer to the first part is there. The shoulder straps do not go round the hoops themselves. They run back over the seats and wrap round a tube that crosses the car low down, between the two hoops and behind the backrests.
What a photo cannot tell you is where that tube came from or how it is fixed to the car. It could be an added bar, it could be part of the hoop assembly with the trim off. We have no build sheet for that car, so we are not going to guess.
Cameron's point was simpler: whatever is in that car, you would not want to work out a harness mounting from a photograph of somebody else's Boxster.
What the factory hoops are for
The two hoops behind the seats in a 986 are Porsche’s roll-over protection. We looked for anything from Porsche, Schroth, Sabelt, Sparco, OMP or TRS that lists them as a place to hang shoulder straps, and found nothing, either way.
The rules are clearer. Motorsport UK’s harness guidance puts the shoulder straps on a harness bar that forms part of the car’s roll-over protection, either looped round it or bolted to a proper insert. The FIA say the straps may be looped round the safety cage or round a transverse bar, and they give that bar a minimum size: 38 x 2.5mm or 40 x 2mm cold drawn seamless steel tube.
A pair of separate hoops with nothing across them does not meet that, so Garreth’s answer to the customer was short: fit a proper harness bar.
Then there is the angle. Shoulder straps run level or down from your shoulders to the bar, no more than 45 degrees below horizontal, 20 degrees if you wear a HANS, and never upwards. Our harness fitting guide has every figure with its source, and it is worth ten minutes before anything gets drilled.
The answer without a full cage: a bolt-in rear cage
Safety Devices make a bolt-in rear cage for the 986 Boxster. Their own description is a six point cage with a single diagonal and a harness bar, and it says in as many words that it may be used without a front cage. So you get a bar across the back of the cabin for the shoulder straps, with no front hoop or door bars to climb past, for £521 ex VAT.
It comes two ways, with brackets for the convertible roof or without them. Which one is right depends on how you use the hood, so tell us when you order and we will go through it. Our soft top and roll cage guide covers the wider question for roadsters.
Before you order, check the year. Safety Devices list this cage for 986s built from 1997 to 1999, so if yours is a later car, send us the year and we will check it with them. And the listing says it is not for competition use, so it is a road and track day cage, which is what this customer asked for.
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SW Motorsports and the other half cages
Garreth asked for SW Motorsports to be checked properly, because a bolt-in half cage was the first thing the customer had in mind. For the 986, SW make weld-in cages, a T45 homologated cage and a CDS multipoint kit, both covering the 986 and 987. Their bolt-in half cage is the Boxster 987 one, for the generation after, and SW list no bolt-in half cage or harness bar for a 986.
The other route is a full weld-in cage. Safety Devices also make the full 986 cage, front and rear with door bar options, at £851 ex VAT, and Custom Cages make a multipoint T45 kit for the Boxster at £1,515.25 ex VAT that welds in. Both are more cage than a track day car needs.
This is where Garreth and Cameron do not quite agree. Garreth would put the rear cage in and leave it there, because it answers the question that was asked and the car stays usable. Cameron asks a different question first: will you ever race it? The bolt-in rear cage is not a competition cage, so if the answer is maybe, he would rather you spent the money once on the weld-in route. Only you know which car this is going to be.
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Moving the Corbeau across
The seat can come with you, but the frame stays behind. Seat frames are built for one car’s mounting points, so the GR Yaris frame stays with the Yaris and the Boxster needs its own.
Width is the first check: the 986 floor is about 515mm from the tunnel to the door card, so we suggest a seat base under 500mm, and our widest seat page goes through it in detail.
For the frame there are three we list for the 986, and for a motorsport seat like the Corbeau we would point you to the Planted bracket first. The PCI Racing sliding sub frame is a side mount frame that bolts to the factory seat mounting points, so nothing gets drilled, and it is handed, so it is one per seat. The Cobra direct fit subframe is a base mount with the runners included, built around Cobra seats, and other makes are cross compatible, so we confirm your seat against it first. The Planted bracket for the Boxster comes from the same family as their 996, 997 and Cayman brackets.
Before he picks one, Cameron will ask which Corbeau it is and how tall you are. In a car this size the frame decides whether your helmet clears the hoops, and it also decides the shoulder strap angle to the bar, so the seat goes in before the harness gets set up.
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Choosing the harness
With a bar to go to, the harness is the easy part. For track days a road and track harness does the job, and if you plan to compete, an FIA belt and whatever your championship asks for.
The seat and the bar decide which one. The seat needs the right slots for the layout you want, four point, five or six, so check the Corbeau before buying a six point belt. And the shoulder ends have to suit the bar, either wrapping round it or clipping to an eye bolt, which our harness bar strap length page explains.
The lap straps go to the car’s floor or its proper anchorage points. No subframe has fixings made specifically for a 5 or 6 point crotch strap. That is something that gets adapted for motorsport use, and one of the existing holes can be picked up to add an eyebolt for it. If you cannot see where a strap is going, drop us an email or click to open a chat and we will help you work it out.
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Those three are examples from a much bigger shelf, and every belt we list for road and track use is in our road and track harness range.
Common questions
Can I loop harness straps round the factory 986 roll hoops?
We found nothing from Porsche or any harness maker that lists them as a shoulder strap anchor. The rules put the straps on a harness bar that forms part of the roll-over protection, so fit a proper bar.
Is there a bolt-in harness bar for the 986 Boxster?
Yes, the Safety Devices bolt-in rear cage has a harness bar built in and can be fitted without a front cage. Their listing covers 986s built 1997 to 1999, so send us the year if yours is later.
Does SW Motorsports make a half cage for the 986?
Not a bolt-in one. SW make weld-in cages that cover the 986 and 987, and their bolt-in half cage is listed for the Boxster 987 only.
Can I use my Corbeau seat from another car?
Yes, the seat moves across, but it needs a 986 frame. Tell us which Corbeau it is and Cameron will match the frame to it.
Can the harness bolt to the seat frame?
No. The FIA prohibit anchoring a harness to the seat or its supports. The straps go to the car or the harness bar.
What to send us
The year of the car, which Corbeau you have, your height, and whether you want to keep using the hood. With those four Cameron can put the frame and cage together, and Garreth will tell you straight whether the rear cage or the weld-in route suits how you plan to use the car. Ring 0115 9893488, drop us an email or click to open a chat.
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