BMW E36 Racing Harness Installation – 1990-1998 3 Series – All Models

Those are not only the words that our instructor told us at our first HPDE event, but also those of every advanced driver that we had a chance to talk to that day. A good racing harness is vital to your safety on the track. It not only protects your body in the event of a serious crash but also keeps you firmly anchored to the seat and in control of the vehicle during aggressive track maneuvers. A regular seat belt is a correct choice for daily street driving; in fact, a racing harness is not DOT approved and should not be used as a replacement for your stock seat belt while you are driving on the street. Race harnesses are designed for track use only. If you are planning on driving your car both on the street as well as on the track, you must be able to install your race harness while leaving your stock seat belt fully operational.

Before purchasing a new racing harness, there are several important questions you need to ask yourself:

1. What is your budget? There are literally hundreds of different types of harnesses on the market and you can spend anywhere from $70 to close to $1000. - We were trying to keep our budget under $500.
2. Are you keeping your stock seats? Many harnesses require a roll bar to be installed or require racing seats and special mounting points on the floor. How many interior modifications are you willing to make?  - We were keeping our factory seats in the E36 M3. We like the stock look of our interior, and we were not willing to start "chopping" it up with aftermarket racing parts.
3. What is the safest harness for the money? They make 4 point, 5 point, and 6 point racing harnesses…which one fits your budget? - Once again...we wanted the safest setup we could get for under $500.

All of these questions were quickly answered by a very friendly and courteous salesperson at G-Force Racing Gear. He told the BMW Repair Guide that G-Force's best option based on our answers to the above questions was the G-Force 7001BK; a six-point, 3”, SFI 16.1 rated harness that will attach to the E36’s existing seat bolts. It is a “cam-lock” bolt-in harness that is extremely well built and easy to use.  We chose the six-point harness simply because it is the safest…it does the best job at holding the pelvis in place during an abrupt stop. We also went with the Cam Lock design because it is cleaner looking, and simpler to use. Of course, all of these requirements may change if you are racing under a governing body and not just doing HPDE events, so we suggest doing your own research before buying any racing harness.

The only extra part we would have to buy and install was a harness bar so we could have an attachment point for the shoulder straps. Since we do not have a roll bar installed in our car, we needed to add a strong attachment point behind the front seats. It is critical that the attachment point for the shoulder straps does not exceed more than 1”-4” below shoulder height to avoid additional spinal compression during a crash. The easiest solution for this is to install a bolt-in harness bar with support struts.  We purchased a nicely built, black powder-coated Cipher Harness Bar that ended up fitting perfectly.

Our total price for the project was about $400 with shipping and was an easily installed setup that allowed us to keep our stock seats and seat belts intact. We have put together a step-by-step installation guide for the entire setup below.