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 the United States market
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
Materials, stampings, assemblies, documents and provenance examined as one body of evidence.
↗Inspect a car before buying
Independent review before bidding, signing, wiring funds or arranging transport.
↗Review documents and photographs
A focused review of documents and photographs before a larger examination is commissioned.
↗Manage an inherited collection
Inventory, condition, value and priorities established before division, sale or conservation.
↗Plan a collection’s succession
A complete evidence matrix for families, advisers and collection owners.
↗Arrange collection care
Recurring review of value, risk, records, insurance and restoration progress.
↗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 a forensic methodology. Every mandate is led by automotive engineers, supported by laboratories, professors and model specialists when the question requires it.
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 the Cologne Chamber of Commerce.
International market experience
Mandates for leading manufacturers, specialist dealers and international auction houses. Selected professional contexts include Maserati Classiche and RM Sotheby’s.
A family engineering office
European vehicle knowledge with personal responsibility.
Klaus, Laura and Niclas Kukuk combine expert appraisal, engineering, research and international collector car work. United States mandates are coordinated personally and documented for the agreed decision, recipients and jurisdiction.
Independent since 1986IHK sworn expertiseScientific methodsInternational mandates
A coordinated international mandate
One evidence file across locations and advisers.
We review records, define open questions and coordinate the physical examination where the vehicle is located. Findings are written for the agreed decision and recipients, with limits stated clearly.
Define the decisionSecure records and provenanceExamine the vehicleReport findings and limits
Evidence from our own work
Cases where evidence changes the decision.
These cases show how KUKUK structures authentication, acquisition and damage questions.
When a configuration must be supported by historical evidence.
Does the covered headlight front genuinely belong to the history of this vehicle?
Open case study ↗Why unrestored substance requires a different reading.
A Mercedes Benz 300 SL in Paris demonstrates the technical language of original material.
Open case study ↗
What must be secured when damage appears after transport.
Condition, timing, causation and responsibility need a coherent evidence record.
Open case study ↗Knowledge for decisions
Four specialist pages for the question at hand.
Choose the subject that matches the collector vehicle, available evidence and transaction or ownership decision.
Ultrasound, borescope or CT?
What each method can show and where its limits lie.
What can a frame inspection establish?
Identity, material, manufacturing evidence, repairs and uncertainty.
KAR™ and the KUKUK Signature™ layers
How evidence, material and released digital information are connected across borders.
What should a pre purchase inspection 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.
Confidential first contact
What decision needs to be protected?
Share the vehicle, location, records and timing. We normally respond on the same business day and propose a clear review or examination scope. A protected upload can be arranged.
+49 (0) 2206 95 900Send the case securely
Use the structured enquiry route so your request is recorded, attributed and confirmed.
Open secure enquiry