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Our Top Recommended Harnesses For Your Lotus Elise
Harness picks, Lotus Elise
An Elise is one of the easier cars in the shop to put a harness in and one of the easiest to get wrong, and the two facts have the same cause. The belts themselves are straightforward, because Schroth build a set specifically for the car. Where people come unstuck is what the shoulder straps are going to hang off.
Cameron's version of the conversation is always the same two questions. Is it staying road legal, and what is behind the seats. Garreth's addition is that the second one usually costs more than the belts do, so it is worth knowing before you fall in love with a set of red webbing.
- Only three belts on our shelves are built for this car, and all three are FIA
- Schroth build a Lotus specific set that covers Elise S1 and S2, from £409.76
- Both Schroth Lotus listings assume a harness bar is already fitted
- The Safety Devices bolt-in roll bar is the Elise answer at £847.20, S1 or S2
- A generic road belt is not a cheaper option here, it is a fabrication job
- The Schroth Lotus belts are FIA 8854-1998, which gets no five year extension
Start with the end fittings, not the price
Almost every harness on our site is built around a saloon or a hatchback. The sales pitch on a generic road belt is that it bolts to your car’s own factory belt mounting points and lets you keep the back seat usable. Read Schroth’s own description of the Rallye range and that is exactly what it says.
An Elise has no back seat and nothing behind you but a bulkhead and a hoop. So the thing that decides whether a harness suits this car is not the price or the webbing, it is what is on the end of the straps.
Schroth build a Lotus version for that reason, and their own description spells out the difference: three inch shoulder straps with wrap around end fittings, and two inch lap straps with Lotus specific bolt-in hardware fitted. That hardware is the whole product. A generic belt with generic eye ends is a different job entirely, and we come back to that at the bottom of this page.
What that leaves you choosing between
On an Elise the real choice is narrower than it looks, and it is a good thing. Three belts on our shelves are built for this car or its sister. Everything else is a generic belt you would be adapting.
If you are competing, your championship regulations decide what you run and they outrank anything here. Tell us what you compete in and we will check the rule before you spend.
| Belt | Made for | Price from |
|---|---|---|
| Schroth Lotus II | Elise and Exige S1 and S2, bolt in | £409.76 |
| Schroth Lotus II-FE | Elise and Exige S1 and S2, bolt in or wrap | £504.91 |
| Willans Silverstone 4x4 EXG | Willans list it under Lotus, clip in or wrap | £281.78 |
All three are FIA homologated. None of them replaces your original seat belts, which stay fitted and working.
The FIA belts
Here is where the Elise gets something most cars do not. Schroth build a Lotus specific harness, in two versions, with lap strap hardware made to bolt to the mounting points Lotus already put in the car. Three inch shoulders tapering to two inch laps, alloy adjusters, wrap around end fittings.
The II and the II-FE differ in the fitting. The II is bolt in. The II-FE can be bolted in or wrapped, which is what you want if the straps are going round a bar. Both listings cover Elise S1 and S2, and you choose driver or passenger side and black or red webbing at the basket.
The Willans Silverstone alongside them is the alternative if you want an aircraft buckle and a colour, and it comes in ten of them.
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From £409.76 Incl. VATPayPal CreditKlarna ReadySelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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From £504.91 Incl. VATPayPal CreditKlarna ReadySelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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From £281.78 Incl. VATPayPal CreditSelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
The date rule on these is not the usual oneThe Schroth Lotus belts are homologated to FIA 8854-1998, and the Willans to 8853-1998. Neither is the current 8853-2016 standard, and that matters for competition: the five year extension Motorsport UK give a current belt belongs to 8853-2016 only. An 8854-1998 harness gets no extension at all, so the year printed on its label is the year it is finished, full stop. Our full explanation of harness dates is in the expiry guide. If the car is a road and track day car this does not apply to you at all, and if you are competing, read the label and your regulations before you buy.
Where the shoulder straps actually go
This is the Elise question, and it is the one people leave until last. Both Schroth Lotus listings say the harness is designed to fit the car with a harness bar fitted. The lap straps have somewhere to go. The shoulder straps do not, until you give them something.
In an Elise you have a proper answer that is not a full cage. Safety Devices make a bolt-in roll bar for the S1 and for the S2, and their own description says it plainly: a harness bar mount including a Petty bar, intended for the mounting of shoulder straps when full harness belts are used. It is the roadster answer, it keeps the car open, and at £847.20 it is the single biggest line on the bill.
If you want more than that, the S1 rear cage has a harness bar built into it and replaces the original roll hoop.
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From £847.20 Incl. VATPayPal CreditMade to orderKlarna ReadySelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
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From £847.20 Incl. VATPayPal CreditMade to orderKlarna ReadySelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Those three are the Elise specific options. The rest are in the Lotus Elise roll cage category. Tell us the year and the engine when you ring, because the S2 splits between K Series and Toyota and it changes what fits.
Do not mount shoulder straps to the seat or the floor behind youThe strap has to come off something structural at roughly shoulder height. Running it down to the floor behind the seat puts a steep downward angle on your spine under load, which is the opposite of what the belt is for. Schroth’s own guidance for the Rallye 3 talks about not exceeding 45 degrees below horizontal, and the same thinking applies to any of these. The detail is in our harness fitting guide.
The seat has to do its share
A four point harness needs a seat with shoulder slots in the backrest for the straps to pass through. A standard Elise seat does not have them, so a harness and a seat tend to arrive as one decision.
We wrote up the seat side of a Lotus separately in the Corbeau LE-Driver fitting guide, which covers what bolts to an Elise or an Exige floor and what needs adapting. Worth reading before you commit to either half.
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Keep the original belts
Whatever you fit, leave the factory three point belt in place and working. It stays legal for the road, it is what a passenger without a harness will use, and no scrutineer has ever objected to it being there.
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Two inch or three inch
Three inch shoulders spread the load wider, two inch suit a head and neck device better. We went through the whole argument in the strap width guide.
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Buy them in pairs
One harness does one seat, and the driver and passenger sides are different parts on the Schroth Lotus listings. Say if you want both or you will get two of the same.
The cheaper route, and what it actually involves
There are four point belts on our site at half the money. Schroth’s own Rallye range, TRS and OMP road belts, plenty of others. People ask about them for an Elise every week and the honest answer needs more than a yes or no.
They will physically fit a human being in an Elise. What they do not come with is anywhere to attach them. Those belts are sold on the promise of using a saloon’s existing rear mounting points, and Schroth’s own Rallye Cross listing is blunt about the consequence: the shoulder strap attachment points must be structural, they cannot just be bolted to sheet metal.
So a generic belt in an Elise is not a cheaper purchase, it is a different job. You are taking on the anchorages yourself, to the fixing sizes the rulebook names, and that is a fabrication job, not a shopping one. Our guide to running a harness without a cage goes through what the anchorages have to be, and the fitting guide covers the angles.
Cameron’s position is that on a car where somebody already makes the right part, buying the wrong one to save a hundred and fifty pounds is a poor trade. If you still want to go that way, ring first and tell us what you plan to bolt to. The whole generic shelf is in the clip buckle road harness category.
Common questions
Will the Schroth Lotus harness fit my Elise without a bar?
The listings assume a harness bar is fitted, because the shoulder straps need to come off something at the right height. If there is nothing behind your seats, price the bar in at the same time as the belts.
Is a four point harness road legal in an Elise?
The Schroth ASM belts are sold as road and track and the Rallye 4 listing describes it as DOT approved, which is the American standard Schroth quote. The safe answer for the UK is to keep the original three point belt fitted and working alongside whatever you add, which is what we would do anyway.
S1 or S2, does it change the belts?
No. Both Schroth Lotus listings cover Elise S1 and S2. It changes the bar: the S1 and S2 roll bars are different parts, and the S2 splits again between K Series and Toyota engines.
Can I use these for competition?
Your regulations decide, and the date on the label decides after that. The Schroth Lotus belts are 8854-1998, which gets no extension, so read the label year and treat it as final. Tell us what you compete in and we will check it with you.
Four point or three point?
Four, in most Elises. Schroth sell the Rallye 3 for cars where the geometry will not give you a decent shoulder strap angle on a four, and in a car this small that is worth checking rather than assuming.
Tell us what is behind the seats
Before you order, tell us the year, the engine, and what is behind the seats already. Standard hoop, a bar, a cage, or nothing. That one answer decides whether this is a set of belts or a set of belts and a roll bar, and the difference is most of the money.
Ring the showroom on 0115 9893488 and Cameron will price it both ways. The whole Lotus belt range is in the Lotus harness category, and the wider FIA shelf is here.
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