your not supposed to driving your rally car around town willy nilly.....

not only belts are a prob
wait till a cop deceides that your car has been modified for street racing ...cage...seats....gravel tires

my understanding is they can take it away and crush it with the new law...

save it for rallys and sanctioned practice days and buy a trailer

big_Ian wrote on 04/06/8 at 16:52:53:


I've had my caged car for about a month now, it has a whopping 6KMs on it since I bought it - that was to drive it to storage... Not exactly driving around willy nilly by any stretch of the imagination...

big_Ian wrote on 04/06/8 at 16:52:53:


http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/regs/english/elaws_regs_070455_e.htm

http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90h08_e.htm

Some good reading, if your bored, have nothing better to do and/or generally lack much of a life.

Then again, someone else with more power (the cop) also interprets the above, so all that may be a moot point (aka make friends / pay a lawyer and keep said number in speed dial, as I do).


big_Ian wrote on 04/06/8 at 16:52:53:

Already paid up for the May 3rd test day.

I'm a student. I shared a rented <500 SQ FT basement apartment with three guys. I take the bus to get my groceries, since I don't have a daily driver. I'd love to have a 5th wheel, a soooper bitchin' set of SnapOn tools and a decent jack, and so on, but sometimes, the world just hates you and you don't win the lotto each and every week. Do what you can, have fun with what you have. Buying a truck, trailer and insuring it, just to tow a box o-junk 200-300 kms 3 times a year?  Nothing I would like to mis-appropriate my money on more then that!

The first item I bought for my car was a drivers side sun visor... Why? Because the law says their should be one. I've spent 75,000 + KMs (I don't commute) behind the wheel since I got my license with not as much as being stopped by police (no mean feat for a young male in a sporty/modified vehicle, or so I hear). I intend to keep it this way.

There are a number of folks who put a likely 15,000+ KMs a year, on public roads, in caged cars. I've even seen at least one of these cars driven with what I like to call "inappropriate enthusiasm" on public roads. Having said this, while it is not advisable to drive a caged car without a helmet, its within ones rights, so do as one wishes. Assuming everyones primary concern is with the so-called "image" or attraction of undue attention to rallyists, I can give a long list of items that have the potential to have a much greater impact and an even longer list of individuals who are guilty of said items. (And thats not even breaking into the stuff I've seen during rallies as both a participant, spectator and volunteer).

The intent of my question was to ascertain if my vehicle currently adheres to the HTA. If the current belts do not, then I will purchase stock belts and install them (Use however, is another quandry). Obviously, since I did pose the question in the first place, an answer at some juncture would be appreciated.

<END utterly useless rant>

(1)  No person shall drive on a highway a motor vehicle in which a seat belt assembly required under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act (Canada) at the time that the vehicle was manufactured or imported into Canada has been removed, rendered partly or wholly inoperative, modified so as to reduce its effectiveness or is not operating properly through lack of maintenance.

I guess by putting in racing belts you have a)removed
b) modified ,but not to reduce its effectivness....for sure its not clear which means it will depend on the officers good will and mood...not always a good bet

the good news is there is a lovely stock 323 decaying in my backyard  (which needs to be picked up before my spring sale first of may)
I bet it has said stock belts....

The big problem with that is that the stock belt will do a very poor job of holding you into a race seat, unless you're threading the belt through the belt holes on the race seat.

In 2006, the shop that I had taken the 93 Swift to for a safety check, called in a local MTO inspector.  The shop was concerned that the removal of the rear seat and rear seat belts made the car illegal under the HTA.

I wasn't there but I was told that the Inspector after a careful look at the car saw no problems.  It had the racing seats and full six point harnesses for driver and codriver at that time as well as the roll cage.  I may have got lucky in that the Inspector may have been unusally reasonable but who is to know his reasons - it passed and the shop issued the safety.

The reality is of course that our seats and harnesses ARE much safer than most standard equipment.  

For what its worth.

Jim

big_Ian wrote on 04/06/8 at 21:47:49:


Hey! I was told that thing was *mint*  

gully wrote on 04/07/8 at 08:31:21:


I got thinking about it.

Say one installed (or didn't remove) stock seat belts and out of safety, only wore the 5/6 PT harness. With the stock belts, you could be charged with not wearing a seatbelt, instead of a non-operable charge. The latter does not involve demerit points as I understand it.

Annoying since I got looking at crash videos for the Scroth ASM belt systems for street cars...