Independent engineering office since 1986.
Forensic vehicle analysis since 1986Independent. Scientific. Worldwide.
Independent inspections.Informed decisions.
Expert reports and advice for classic, racing and sports cars. We examine authenticity, condition and value before a purchase, after damage and for your collection.
Independent engineering practice since 1986
Services for important decisions
How can we help?
Choose your situation to see what we examine, which records we need and how the process works.
Check a car’s authenticity
Forensic examination of materials, stampings, assemblies, documents and provenance.
↗Inspect a car before buying
Independent examination before bidding, signing or transferring funds.
↗Manage an inherited collection
Establish inventory, evidence, condition and priorities before decisions are made.
↗Value and manage a collection
Independent structure for value, risk, records, conservation and succession.
↗Resolve damage or a dispute
Evidence preservation, causation, repair scope and value consequences.
↗Prepare for a concours
Authenticity, documentation, presentation strategy and jury perspective for significant collector cars.
↗Latest from KUKUK
View all stories ↗Cars, people and what we learn along the way.
Recent visits, conversations and perspectives from the world of historic cars.
Fair recap · October 2026
Bologna: our Auto e Moto d’Epoca recap
Niclas and Klaus on the fair, the Auction Yearbook presentation and what the auction figures tell us.
Read the story
People and cars · October 2026
One last party at Cady Cars
An evening with Thierry and Andreea in Ieper. Our photographs and memories of their invitation to the collection.
Read the storyWhy KUKUK
Expertise that has to stand up in court.
Independent consulting and engineering with forensic methods. Automotive engineers lead every mandate and involve laboratories, professors and model specialists where required.
Court contexts in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Germany’s first publicly appointed and sworn expert for classic cars through IHK Cologne.
International market experience
Mandates for leading OEMs, specialist dealers and international auction houses. Selected professional contexts include Maserati Classiche and RM Sotheby’s.
A family engineering office
Three perspectives. One independent standard.
Klaus, Laura and Niclas Kukuk combine decades of expert appraisal, engineering, research and international collector car work. The family structure supports continuity, discretion and personal responsibility.
Independent since 1986IHK sworn expertiseScientific methodsInternational mandates
The KUKUK method
The vehicle must support the story told about it.
We compare records, provenance and historical references with the material evidence present in the vehicle. The scope follows the decision and the limits of the available evidence.
Define the questionSecure the recordsExamine the vehicleReport findings and limits
Evidence from our own work
Cases where evidence changes the decision.
KUKUK case studies show how technical questions are structured, examined and documented.
When a front end must be historically proven.
Does the front with covered headlights genuinely belong to this vehicle’s history?
Read case study ↗Why unrestored substance requires a different reading.
A Mercedes Benz 300 SL in Paris demonstrates the technical language of original material.
Read case study ↗
Why fast decisions limit flood damage.
Water level, contamination and coordinated action affect the outcome.
Read case study ↗Knowledge for decisions
Four specialist pages for the question at hand.
Choose the subject that matches the vehicle, the evidence and the decision you need to make.
Ultrasound, endoscopy or CT?
What each method can show and where its limits lie.
What can a frame examination establish?
Identity, material, manufacturing traces, repairs and uncertainty.
KAR™ and the KUKUK Signature™ layers
How evidence, material and released digital information are connected.
What should a pre purchase examination cover?
Structure, material, identity, records, restoration and risk.
KUKUK heritage
Where we come from.
From technical appraisal work to forensic materials analysis, research and digital documentation: these milestones show how our independent engineering practice has developed since 1982.
Expert appraisal work begins.
The technical view of damage, causation and value becomes the foundation of KUKUK.
The engineering office is founded.
Independent expert reports for demanding vehicles become the core of the family practice.
OES materials analysis.
Material, period and substance become measurable rather than merely asserted.
Fry and Adler etching.
Stampings, relief markings and concealed digits are examined forensically.
X ray examination.
Hidden structures become visible without unnecessarily opening historic material.
Three dimensional capture and photogrammetry.
Geometry, archival material and the physical vehicle become directly comparable.
Sworn expertise for classic cars.
Germany’s first expert publicly appointed and sworn by an IHK specifically for classic cars.
3D and CT analysis.
CT supported examination strengthens questions concerning hidden components and identity.
Research and cooperation.
Academic collaboration advances the next stage of scientific vehicle verification.
A family practice with a system.
Experience, research and digital documentation combine to create robust vehicle evidence.
Independent media sources
External perspectives on our work.
Profiles and interviews make KUKUK expertise verifiable beyond the company website.
Confidential first contact
Which question needs to be resolved?
Share the vehicle, location and timeframe. We normally respond on the same business day. A protected upload can be arranged for records and photographs.
+49 (0) 2206 95 900Send the case securely
Use the structured enquiry route so your request is recorded, attributed and confirmed.
Open secure enquiry