Seat belts

I want to take my car touring this Summer… The problem is that if my wife drives the car she can not reach the handbrake as I have the original static seat belts fitted. :confused:

How easy is it to fit inertia seat belts to the Elan? Does anybody know of a fitting kit, I assume the top mounting brackets need to be adjusted?

Thanks

Carl

Hi Carl
I had the same problem when I bought my S3 . The car came with new Lotus static seat belts so rather than discard them and fit inertia belts, I altered the hand brake up closer to the s/wheel I think about 3". Its still a stretch in my shirt sleeves but OK in my sheepskin jacket.
mac

Mac,

That’s a thought, I never thought of it from that angle…

Thanks

Carl

Carl,

I’ve given up on this one for the time being.

Being ‘vertically-challenged’ and ‘short-armed’, I cannot even find the handbrake, let alone see it, when strapped in static belts.

So I don’t use it.

Except once a year !!!

OTH, if you must, there is a trick:

Unhook the seatbelt clasp, reach down and adjust seat forwards, rotate hips to the right, so as to slide to the right, reach forward with right hand, grab handbrake lever and pull.

Prepare to be surprised. Generally speaking there will be no surprise !!
BTW, have not yet found a way to keep my head / eyesight above the dashboard.

Good luck with TOH’s driving lessons.

Regards,
Stuart.

I have longish arms so it’s never been a problem for me, just a bit of a stretch, it’s only for TOH’s benefit… My other ‘trick’ is to control the brake and accelerator with one foot …

Hmm…

Does this mean TOH and your Elan will never feel the results of her handbrake turns?

And as for ‘heel and toe’… isn’t that just a cheapskate way to try and make the pedal rubbers last a bit longer?

Regards,
Stuart.

Hmm…

Does this mean TOH and your Elan will never feel the results of her handbrake turns?

And as for ‘heel and toe’… isn’t that just a cheapskate way to try and make the pedal rubbers last a bit longer?

Regards,
Stuart.

I tend not to use the handbrake except when parking. In traffic I just heel n toe as required. My S4 now has 4 point harness so reaching the handbrake once buckeled up is out of the question. A real pain if you forget to release the handbrake before doing up the harness :blush:

I consider it to be part of the charm of driving an old English sports car :sunglasses:

TOH is from New Zealand so I though she would be used to driving classic cars out there, most of them are still on the road… :smiley:

No problem about getting spares out there, if it’s not available they just make them from scratch (this included complete gearboxes…)

I had my original belts converted to Inertia Reel by Quicksit at Stanmore Tel 020- 8206 0101. I found them helpfull & the new belts have the old buckles & Lotus badges. It cost me 80 pound using myold belts & the new Inertia Reel I had fitted but not happy with.

Also used quickfit…
did a good job, allowed me to keep the original buckles. Fitting them was just a matter of removing the B-post trim
Cheers
Tim