Heres a stupid question for you .....

[carpoid 0]

.... how the fork on hull are those American Seatbelts electric ??? Is it just the height adjustment or do they automatically clunk click you in with a magic invisable hand or summot ????

[chrishill 0]

AFAIK they slide forwards from the their position on the B pillar to a point thats easier for you to reach rather than having to contort your arm behind you to grab the belt.

[Jim 2]

Heres a stupid answer ;)

 

Imagine the system in reverse. So where you normally clip it in, its already clipped in at the base. The bit that is normally to the side of your head where the seatbelt is dispensed from is on a sort of rail - when you sit in and close the door, it moves from its resting position (which is right forward near the dash) along the rail and clicks into place in about the same place as the seatbelt dispenser thing normally is.

 

If you stop the car, and turn off the ignition, it disengages again.. and it does the same thing if you open the door.

 

Hope that helps a little ;)

[carpoid 0]

The lazy gits, christ on a flamin bike, whats the matter with a slight bit of a twist in your seat to reach it ?? Suppose its a bit easier when you've got a big pie or somethin in your other hand

[carpoid 0]

Oh i see Jim, must be some sort of American compliance thing then ??

[Kevin Bacon 5]

If I had false teeth, I'd have spat on them on the floor in shock yesterday when I saw Tempest's seatbelts moving on their own! Very trick!

 

I agree with Carpy though, it is a bit of an extravaggant piece of engineering to do the simplest of jobs.

[Jim 2]

Oh i see Jim, must be some sort of American compliance thing then ??

 

Its cause they all are still under the impression that its cool to not wear seatbelts, or that you stand a higher chance of being injured wearing them. So cause they can't be trusted to use a little common sense, they have to have them forcibly applied ;)

[carpoid 0]

LOL :) . I guess thats a pretty good reason then !!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

That's a good point Jim!

 

Although I think that's a legacy of the 80s/90s.... most Americans now understand the dangers of not wearing belts.

[Jim 2]

Not from my experiences mate. I had a lengthy argument (now theres a surprise) with some Americans on a forum very recently about this. I'm sure they don't represent the majority but virtually all of them were typically uninterested in what I had to say and were coming out with all kinds of rubbish to explain why wearing seatbelts was stupid.. how you're likely to be seriously injured WEARING a seatbelt, how there are no statistics to prove that they save lives, etc - it was insane and I just had to give up as no amount of arguing on my part got the point across.

[davidwort 0]

Oh i see Jim, must be some sort of American compliance thing then ??

 

Its cause they all are still under the impression that its cool to not wear seatbelts, or that you stand a higher chance of being injured wearing them. So cause they can't be trusted to use a little common sense, they have to have them forcibly applied ;)

 

Wasn't that part of the reason for the yanks developing airbags originally, basically because they couldn't get people to wear seatbelts, the old yank airbags were designed differently with the aim of replacing and not working with seatbelts. Mind you after eating all those burgers I'd have thought most would have enough padding of their own :wink:

[davidwort 0]

Not from my experiences mate. I had a lengthy argument (now theres a surprise) with some Americans on a forum very recently about this. I'm sure they don't represent the majority but virtually all of them were typically uninterested in what I had to say and were coming out with all kinds of rubbish to explain why wearing seatbelts was stupid.. how you're likely to be seriously injured WEARING a seatbelt, how there are no statistics to prove that they save lives, etc - it was insane and I just had to give up as no amount of arguing on my part got the point across.

 

yeah, must be much safer to get thrown clear of the accident through the windscreen :roll:

[chrishill 0]

duh, obviously, I mean have you ever seen a car crash on american TV where at least one car doesnt explode in a fireball? I think I'd rather take a head-first dive through the windscreen on the offchance that my car was going to turn into an accidental barbeque of death than buckle up... its just logical. :?

[Jim 2]

yeah, must be much safer to get thrown clear of the accident through the windscreen :roll:

 

Well exactly. Personally i'd take a bit of bruising or a damaged shoulder, than the experiece of my head hitting a solid glass windscreen at 70MPH!! :|

[Cougar 0]

You guys are funny! :)

 

It's a bit of a myth actually, certainly everyone I know wouldn't drive without a belt and, in fact your manual euro belts are much in demand over here.

[Walesy 0]

Hmmm..So, where would you say the best place for one to go about selling a set of manual seat belts to the American market is then sir?...

[Jim 2]

I'd say VW Vortex in the Vortex Corrado Classifieds...

 

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zeroforum?id=826

[Walesy 0]

Cheers Jim, :wink:

[Cougar 0]

You got it, I believe it's the trim that is most difficult to get here. I have a spare set of retracts, wanna trade? :)

[Walesy 0]

No thanks buddy. I think I have nearly all the interior bits that are required, i'm not exactly sure of the list of things needed. I'll see exactly what I have and put an ad up when Vortex confirm my regestration.

 

Thanks

[dmband0041 0]

No thanks buddy. I think I have nearly all the interior bits that are required, i'm not exactly sure of the list of things needed. I'll see exactly what I have and put an ad up when Vortex confirm my regestration.

 

Thanks

 

this thread had me :lol: sad thing is i agree with you guys...most americans couldn't be bothered by safety devices and im literally dumbfounded by the person who was arguing the beltswould actually HURT in a crash.

 

anyhow, in our US corrados it is common to simply pull the relays controlling the electronic movement of the belts as they tend to go bad and can be a source of power drain.

 

As for that manual belt set with trim, shoot me an email before you post it on vwvortex as Im very interested inthe setup and can likely meet the price you would like to see for them without the hassle of posting etc

 

mailto:[email protected]

 

cheers all, Soumik

[Jim 2]

I'm just glad you all took it with a bit of light humour rather than getting all angry on me :D

[Walesy 0]

dmband0041, I've dropped you an email Sir. :D

[The Leningrad Cowboy 0]

I'm just glad you all took it with a bit of light humour rather than getting all angry on me :D

 

But Jim, they're from the East coast, so actually have a bit of sense!

 

Oh, and if you know how to host it (it's not very big), there's a little vid of Tempest's driver's seatbelt doing its stuff on the Osnabruck / Karmann CD I gave you. I think Paul is in the seat, and you can hear most of our shocked comments on the comedy value! I think the Germans were particularly humoured by it.

[veritas137 0]

LOL, yeah auto seatbelts were one of those stupid US laws before airbags came about. Heck, even the Canadian cars didn't have these crazy things.

 

Also I didn't see it mentioned here, but the auto belts have been known to cause head injuries because of the moving clip. I know it whacked me at least once while working on the car. Stuck my head in tyhrough the open window and put the key in the ignition, before I could get my head out it came along and whacked me. I guess that's better than choking me if the seatbelt had actually been attached at the time. :lol:

 

And yeah, if you guys ever want to make a few bucks and sell them, the entiree setup includes the A pillars, B pillars, center console trim, buckle, and the entire seatbelt assembly from the B pillar area inlluding the pieces of metal that guide the belt. Amazingly our cars have all the proper bolt holes to attach everything so it's a relaitvely easy swap to do.