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Our Top Recommended Harnesses For Your Lotus Exige
Harness picks, Lotus Exige
Exiges get harnesses more often than Elises do, because more of them get tracked. The belts are the easy half and they are the same belts either way. The bit that catches Exige owners out is which Exige they have.
Cameron asks the year before he asks anything else, and there is a good reason for it that costs people money. Garreth's contribution is usually that the belts are never the expensive part on this car, which is true and not particularly comforting.
- The car-specific Schroth Lotus set covers Exige S1 and S2 only, from £409.76
- A V6 Exige S is NOT on that fitment list, so it takes a universal belt instead
- There is no bolt-in roll bar for any Exige. On this car the anchor is a cage
- Rear cages start at £967.20 and all of them carry a harness bar in the design
- 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
Which Exige, and why it matters first
Three generations wear the badge and the belt answer is not the same for all of them.
The S1 and the S2 are covered by the Schroth Lotus harness. Both listings name them, the hardware is made to bolt to the mounting points Lotus already put in the car, and it is the neatest set you can put in one.
The V6 Exige S, 2012 to 2015, is not on that list. Neither Schroth Lotus listing includes it and both describe themselves as series 1 and 2. That does not mean a V6 cannot have a harness, it means it takes a universal belt and its own anchor instead. We sell cages built specifically for the V6, so the car is well served, just not by the car-specific belt.
If yours is a V6 Exige S, read this before you orderThe Schroth Lotus II and II-FE are the obvious thing to buy for a Lotus and they will come up first in any search. Their fitment stops at the Exige S2. Ordering one for a V6 expecting the Lotus specific lap hardware to line up is a wasted week. Ring us with the year and we will put you on a universal FIA belt that suits the cage you are running, which is the correct answer for that car rather than a compromise.
The FIA belts
Taking these first, because an Exige is more likely than an Elise to be doing something where the regulations have an opinion.
The Schroth Lotus comes in two versions. The II is bolt in. The II-FE can be bolted in or wrapped around a bar, which on a caged Exige is usually what you want. Three inch shoulders tapering to two inch laps, alloy adjusters, and lap hardware made for the car. Pick driver or passenger side and black or red at the basket.
The Willans Silverstone is the universal alternative, and it is the one to look at for a V6 or for anyone who wants an aircraft buckle. Ten colours, clip in or wrap around.
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These sit on older standards, and the date rule is differentThe Schroth Lotus belts are homologated to FIA 8854-1998 and the Willans to 8853-1998. Neither is the current 8853-2016. That matters on a car that actually competes: the five year extension Motorsport UK give a current belt belongs to 8853-2016 only, and an 8854-1998 harness gets no extension at all, so the year on its label is the year it is finished. The whole rule, with the worked examples, is in our harness expiry guide. Read the label before you buy, and read your regulations after that.
What about a cheaper road and track belt?
Fair question, and it comes up every week. There are four point belts on our site at half the money: Schroth’s own Rallye range, TRS and OMP road belts, plenty more. The honest answer needs more than a yes.
Those belts are designed around a saloon. The whole pitch is that they bolt to a car’s existing factory belt points and let you keep the back seat usable, and Schroth’s own Rallye description says exactly that. An Exige has no back seat and no rear belt points to borrow, so the part of the product you are paying for does not apply to your car.
They also arrive with generic bolt-in eye ends instead of the Lotus hardware, and Schroth’s Rallye Cross listing is blunt about what that means: the shoulder strap attachment points must be structural, and cannot just be bolted to sheet metal.
So a generic belt in an Exige is not a cheaper purchase, it is a different job, with the anchorages on you and at the fixing sizes the rulebook names. Our guide to running a harness without a cage sets out what those have to be. If you want to go that way, ring first and tell us what you intend to bolt to. The generic shelf is in the clip buckle road harness category.
On an Exige the anchor is a cage
Both Schroth Lotus listings assume a harness bar is already fitted. The lap straps have mounting points waiting for them. The shoulder straps have nothing until you put something there.
An Elise owner has an easy answer here, because Safety Devices make a bolt-in roll bar for the Elise S1 and S2 that is sold as a shoulder strap mount. There is no equivalent for an Exige. On this car it is a cage, and the rear cages are where most people start: all three below replace the original roll hoop and carry a harness bar with a cross diagonal.
Note the two on the left are shared with the Elise S2 and the one on the right is V6 specific. Safety Devices are clear that these are not a DIY fit and that trim and bodywork modifications are needed.
Full six point cages exist above these if the car is going racing, and the rest of the range is in the Safety Devices Lotus cage category. Once a cage is in, how you attach the belts to it is its own subject and we covered it properly here.
The roof changes the belt you want
This is the bit that separates an Exige from its open sister in daily use. You get in past a fixed roof, over a very wide sill, into a seat that is already low. Doing that four times an evening with a six point in the way gets old quickly.
It is most of why we steer Exige owners to a four point unless a regulation says otherwise. Fewer straps to find, no sub strap to fish out from under you, and on a road registered car the original belts are still there for the drive home.
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Keep the original belts
Leave the factory three point fitted and working whatever you add. It stays legal for the road and it is what anyone without a harness will be using.
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Mind the strap angle
Shoulder straps want to come off the bar at roughly shoulder height, not steeply downward. The numbers and the reasoning are in the fitting guide.
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Two inch or three
Three inch spreads the load, two inch works better with a head and neck device. The argument in full is in the strap width guide.
The seat is half the job
A four point needs shoulder slots in the seat back for the straps to pass through, and a standard Exige seat does not have them. So the belts and the seat usually get bought together whether you planned it that way or not.
What bolts to a Lotus floor, and what needs adapting, is in our Corbeau LE-Driver fitting guide. Worth reading before you commit to either half of this.
Common questions
Does the Schroth Lotus harness fit a V6 Exige S?
No. Both listings cover Elise and Exige series 1 and 2 only, and the lap hardware is made for those cars. For a V6 we would put you on a universal FIA belt to suit whatever cage you are running.
Is there a bolt-in harness bar for an Exige?
Not from Safety Devices. They list bolt-in roll bars for the Elise S1 and S2, but on an Exige the route is a rear cage, which carries a harness bar as part of the design. It costs more and it does more.
Four point or six?
Four, unless a regulation says six. Getting in and out of an Exige past the roof and that sill is enough of a job without a sub strap to hunt for every time.
Can I run a harness on the road in an Exige?
The Schroth ASM belts are sold as road and track and the four point carries Schroth’s anti-submarining design for exactly that reason. Keep the original three point belt fitted and working alongside it, which is what we would do anyway.
My belts came with the car. Are they any good?
Read the label before you trust them. A used track car’s harnesses are very often the previous owner’s problem becoming yours, and an 8854-1998 belt gets no extension on its date. Send us a photograph of the label and we will tell you what you have.
Give us the year first
Tell us the year and what is behind the seats. On an Exige those two answers decide everything else: whether the car-specific Schroth is even an option, and whether you are buying belts or belts and a cage.
Ring the showroom on 0115 9893488 and Cameron will work it through with you. The Lotus belt range is in the Lotus harness category and the wider FIA shelf is here.
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