PSA: Your Fancy-Pants Recaro Seat May No Longer Be Legal For Racing

Bad news if you're currently running a Recaro Pole Position seat in your race car: the seats have lost their FIA homologation, which is the safety certification that allows you to use them in your race car for many sanctioning bodies.

During internal crash tests for the FIA standard 8855-1999, Recaro found that the composite shell for the seats cracks near the front attachment points for the seat adapter brackets in testing. Recaro voluntarily forwarded on this information to the FIA. The worry that this could cause the seats to come unattached from their brackets has caused the FIA to withdraw its homologation for the seats.

The Pole Position is Recaro's entry level model run by many club racers and enthusiasts worldwide. While it loses its FIA certification, not every group requires an FIA seat to be legal to run on track. However, because of the very nature of this issue, Recaro is advising owners not to use these seats in a motor vehicle.

Alternately, you now have a sweet starting point for the best living room iRacing setup ever.

Build Race Party has the full letter from the FIA regarding the announcement up on their site.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Edit: We initially reported that the FIA had done the testing, but this was a misunderstanding of the FIA's release. Recaro Automotive Seating did the tests internally and let the FIA know of their results. We also mentioned that the seats are probably fine for track days, although due to the severity of the issue, the company is actively discouraging their use regardless of whether you need the FIA certification or not.

Additionally, Recaro has a customer care hotline if you purchased one of the affected seats: (011) 49 202 2515 620.