Whenever I feel like playing, I usually scoot my seat forward. (I have long legs and the steering wheel doesn't telescope out far enough.) When I do this, I quickly jerk the seatbelt to get it to lock. Once it's locked, I move the seat forward until the belt is tight against me. (Power seats make this easy.)
When I'm cinched down tight like that, it seems as good as racing bucket seats, but with more freedom of movement for my arms. I'm not sure I'd actually prefer a bucket seat, but I haven't driven with them so I can't say this is as good. In either case, I find this works really well for me.
There are very specific design rules for racing in regards to seatbelt position and angles. When they are carefully followed, they do a very good job of keeping you in your seat and they don't hurt you nearly as badly on those rare (or not-so-rare) occasions when you need them. Factory seatbelt design leaves much to be desired, and can really injure you when put to use. (It's still
much better than no belts though!)
Having the belts tight also prevents secondary collisions. (A secondary collision is when the occupants collide with something inside the car, like someone without a seatbelt hitting the windshield. The primary collision is when the car collides with something.) With loose seatbelts, the secondary collision is with the belts themselves. If the belts are tight during a collision, you slow down at the same rate that the car does. If the belts are loose, the car is well on it's way to being at a complete stop by the time the belts finally go tight. When the car's seatbelts have stopped moving, it's a lot like smacking into a completely stationary object with your waist and shoulder.
Anyway, hopefully this is a good hot tip for tightwads like me.
