We all know that race car drivers keep themselves in place during high load competition situations by utilizing a race harness. These purpose built multi-strap pieces of equipment do a fantastic job of holding you in a stationary position so that you can concentrate on the business of driving. For the occasional autocrosser or even the sport driver, this would be a welcome advantage. In fact, some people actually go as far as mounting race harnesses in their street cars. While the benefits are obvious, the downsides can be deterrents.
First, racing harnesses are expensive. You can expect to spend a minimum of a couple of hundred dollars.
Secondly, they need to be installed correctly, not only to achieve maximum benefit, but to actually meet or exceed the level of safety of your stock lap/shoulder belt. Car manufacturers spend millions of dollars engineering the safety systems of their cars; OE belts are really very excellent pieces of safety equipment. If you start messing around with your cars engineered solution, you may be actually putting your life in danger.
Lastly, while harnesses give you a feeling of control while you're in the car, they can be cumbersome to get into and out of. Routine chores such as going to the grocery, post office and video store can become a real ingress/egress issue with a harness.
However, to give the everyday enthusiast some of the advantages of a harness without the hassle, the folks at Mather Automotive Innovations, Inc. have come up with a neat little device called the CG-Lock. While NOT a safety device, the CG-Lock is basically a slick little add-on belt tensioner that you clamp to your existing lap/shoulder belt without affecting the shoulder belt.
The CG-Lock falls into the category of why didnt I think of that." We have to give credit to the ingenious inventor of the CG-Lock, Bruce Mather. He noticed that many drivers at his local autocross events were twisting their lap belts to keep them tight during runs. He thought there had to be a better way. And, it seems as though he has come up with a great solution.
Installing the device takes only a few minutes. I was impressed not only with the quality of the device but with the supporting instructions and material. I installed a CG-Lock on the Focaljet project car and have been using it for several weeks now.
My initial impression (albeit even before actually driving with it on) was that maybe the CG-Lock was going to be too much trouble for me to use on a daily basis. These thoughts disappeared quickly after about a day of its use. I am in and out of my car several times a day and havent had any problem adapting to it. It quickly became second nature to buckle and tighten the CG-Lock. The only downside is when unbuckling and retracting the shoulder belt, care must be taken to make sure the belt retracts as far as it will go with the CG-Lock installed.
In use, the CG-Lock provides several benefits. On the street, you can adjust it to be as tight or loose as feels comfortable. I cinch it up pretty good during normal driving and have found that it feels very secure. And, with sport driving, youll like having one less thing to worry about; the CG-Lock takes your mind off of bracing yourself during hard cornering, etc. While I have not used the device in competition yet, Im sure the benefits would only be enhanced with the higher speeds and loading that your body is subject to in those conditions.
A side benefit of the CG-Lock is that Ive found that my driving posture, on a whole, is better. I have the tendency to slouch down in my seat. It gently keeps you in a more efficient, straight up position. This allows your body to make maximum contact with the seat bottom and back, providing the most square inches of feedback to help you assess what the car is doing beneath you.
As an aside, the CG-Lock only locks the lap portion of the belt. You still have your normal upper body range of movement. If you are racing on the track, due to the higher g-loading, you need the total torso restriction that a true harness provides. But, in everyday driving and during most autocross events, you're better served to have your full range of motion provided by the stock shoulder belt. Thats what makes the CG-Lock an excellent solution for the amatuer enthusiast.
Whats even better about this product is that its only a fraction of the cost of a harness. The price of the CG-Lock is $39.95 (plus shipping).
