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Who would have thought that the famous seat brand in the automotive industryRecaro, bankruptcy happens just like that.

Two days ago, the company announced on its official website that they had submitted a bankruptcy application to a local court in Germany and were approved to enter the preliminary bankruptcy process.

Friends who like performance cars or have modified their own cars must have heard of this brand. It can be said that it is a leader in the car seat industry.

Hot hatchbacks like the Porsche 911 track version, Audi R8, and Focus RS all have Recaro seats from the factory.

In the modification circle, Recaro is even more famous, and even has the title of "King of Bucket Seats". Basically, if you want to replace a bucket seat for your car, it is difficult to avoid this brand.

On their official website it says:The history of Recaro is a history of automobiles.

It sounds like bragging, but I really don't.

Recaro can be traced back to 1906 in Stuttgart, Germany. The founder was originally a famous local saddle maker, and then he transformed into an automotive accessories company.

Soon, Recaro hooked up with the local car company Porsche, and for many years, maintained an unclear relationship with this client.

Recaro also sold its body parts factory to Porsche, and it was only after that that it shifted its focus to seats.

Relying on OEM for Porsche, Recaro quickly made its seat business flourish and gradually became a seat giant.

In 1967, Recaro made its first shell seat, as shown below. It can be seen that this design is to make the shape of the seat fit the body more closely to achieve better wrapping.

It may seem ordinary today, but it was a rarity back then. After all, the seats on other cars at the time all looked like this. They didn’t care about the wrapping, as long as they could be sat on.

A few years later, Recaro made the first racing seat based on this product, and thenThings are becoming more and more hardcore.

The seats in our family cars are designed to be as comfortable as possible, with heating, ventilation, and electric adjustment.

But the first thing to think about for a racing seat isHow to hold a person firmly in placeThe side wings extending from the legs and waist make you unable to move. There is no comfort configuration at all, and the padding inside the seat is very thin, giving you the most direct road feedback. In order to achieve the ultimate lightweight, the front and rear position and backrest angle cannot be adjusted at all.

For example, in the 1980s, they made a sports seat with a plastic back shell. The material was pressed very thin, and a lot of plastic was used to ensure lightness. The shape of this large back panel is not outdated even today.

There are also Nürburgring limited edition seats with track patterns sewn on the headrests, giving people the feeling that they can conquer the Nürburgring just by sitting in them.

For example, the Podium series below, when it first came out, was one of the few modified seats on the market that had both German ABE certification and FIA certification, and could be legally used on public roads.

No, if I keep counting like this, I will want to buy a set of Recaro for my car in a minute.

In short, when it comes to track-level seats, Recaro is a well-deserved industry leader.

In fact,In addition to the niche market of performance car seats, Recaro also makes many types of seats.

Friends who are parents of children should have come across this brand when choosing child seats for their cars. They started making child seats at the end of the last century and are now considered a well-known brand in this market.

Recaro also has a lot of business in seats for airplanes and rail trains.

When I'm on a business trip, I often find that the seats I sit on on the plane are Recaro.

They even doGaming ChairLast year, a Porsche co-branded gaming chair was released. The price is also very Porsche, $2,499 per chair, and it is limited to 911.

Starting out with car seats, Recaro has truly built a seating empire.

However, the company that went bankrupt this time actually had little to do with its chair empire.Because Recaro had already sold its car seat division, Recaro Automotive.

It was Recaro Automotive that went bankrupt this time, but its aircraft seat and child seat businesses were not affected.

In 2011, Recaro sold Recaro Automotive to American supplier Johnson Controls. Later, this department was separated from Johnson Controls and placed under supplier Adient.

Then in 2020, Recaro Automotive was sold to Detroit-based Raven Acquisitions.

The official did not say much about the reasons behind the bankruptcy, only mentioning that the market conditions in the past two years have been bad and that "a major contract was lost", which resulted in the company's insolvency.

Although there is no definite conclusion, we can more or less guess from this passage that its bankruptcy is related to the overall downward trend of traditional performance cars in recent years.

Among the several supply models displayed on Recaro Automotive's official website, the Audi R8 was officially discontinued in March this year, Aston Martin's sales in the first half of this year decreased by 32% year-on-year, and Porsche's sales in the first half of the year also decreased by 7% year-on-year.

However, for this century-old company, bankruptcy is nothing more than a temporary lack of money, not a complete closure of the company. After finding a sponsor to continue the capital chain, it is still a good man.

Look at BBS, which is also a wheel manufacturer popular among modification enthusiasts. It has gone bankrupt five times, but it still sells wheels to you.

Without further ado, I’m going to the seafood market to buy a second-hand Recaro.

Written by:Daydream

edit:Neck twist right & face thread

Art editor:Huanyan

Image, source：

Recaro official website

Wikipedia, Recaro