Spectral analysis, ultrasound, X-rays - this is how vintage counterfeiters are exposed

No more oil stains on the floor, cobwebs in the windows and rusty spare parts on the shelves: if you bring your collector's car to Sebastian Hoffmann, you're more likely to be in a laboratory than a workshop. Instead of using an open-end wrench and screwdriver, the classic car specialist tackles the vehicle with X-ray cameras, ultrasonic sensors or spectral analyses.

Hoffmann is no ordinary vehicle appraiser, but one of the few car forensic experts in the country. As such, he helps track down scammers who sometimes rake in millions.

With meticulousness and methods that are more familiar from medicine and from crime series such as “CSI” or “Tatort”, the expert for classic vehicles takes a look at a TÜV Rheinland test center in Frankfurt’s “Classic City” – meeting place and event location for car fans – PS treasures under the magnifying glass on behalf of owners, auction houses or prospective buyers. He checks how authentic the cars are and how honestly the owners tell their stories.

“There is more reason than ever to doubt,” says Hoffmann. At least his good order situation suggests that. The values ​​for classic cars are currently increasing almost immeasurably. The so-called Uhlenhaut coupé from the early phase of the Mercedes gullwing has just reached a new record value of 135 million euros, as market observers from the US insurance company Hagerty report.

At the same time, it has never been so easy to get false identities for a vehicle, warns Hoffmann. The scammers don't have to be very imaginative: "An old vehicle registration document or a detached chassis number from an Internet auction and grandma's Golf LS mutates into an early GTI, and the Porsche 912 from the scrap yard in San Diego becomes a 2.7 RS," says Hoffman.

Using the example of the full-throttle icon, Hoffmann calculates the scammers' profit margin: "A donor vehicle currently costs around 100,000 euros." The same contribution is made for the "free identity". These are vehicle registration documents for scrapped cars that are not canceled or shredded in every country.

Finally, about 180,000 euros would be added for the conversions: “But the result then has a market value of up to one million euros – if it is not exposed as a fake.”

The more valuable the cars, the more complex the fakes are - and the harder it is for fraudsters to do their job. Because chassis numbers can be sanded off and re-hammered in, traces of sweat disappear under thick paint. And even brand-new frames or sheet metal can be patinated in such a way that even at second glance they look antique.

What cannot be seen with the naked eye, the technology makes visible in Hoffmann's laboratory: With magneto-optical testing methods, the expert can penetrate deeper layers of the metal and thus make the marks, even ground-off chassis numbers, legible again. Spectral analysis reveals the composition of certain metals and allows conclusions to be drawn about their age.

Ultrasound can reveal suspicious differences in material thickness. With caustic acid, the forensic scientist gets to the bottom of the chassis numbers that have been turned over. With the mobile X-ray machine, which he took over from a veterinarian, he finds hidden weld seams and suspicious changes in the material.

After more than ten years on the job, after thousands of investigations and countless reports for courts and authorities, Hoffmann now not only knows the most suspicious candidates and can literally blindly disassemble and reassemble Porsche 911, Mercedes 300 SL and many a Maserati or Ferrari. He also has a good sense of originality and uncovers most modifications with his methods.

The expert still struggles with the verdict: "Of course, not every repair is a sacrilege or a forgery, it's often simply part of the car."

Racing cars, for example, have been improved over the years, and no one can blame the owner of a classic car for repairing accident damage.

“The important thing is that the story is correct and that transparency is maintained. It only starts to stink when such work is kept secret.” And this “stench” bothers collectors with their treasures worth millions just as much as it does the owners of middle-class collectors’ cars – and of course insurance companies and the authorities too.

Although vintage cars are often an emotional affair of the heart for lovers, collectors and fans of old cars, the Tüv Rheinland writes on its website, but warns not least because of the approval for objectivity.

Because for the coveted H license plate, cars not only have to be 30 years old, but also largely in their original condition, the experts summarize the legal situation. In individual cases, however, it is difficult for laypersons to assess whether an expensive car is the original vehicle, a conversion or a clever counterfeit.

Then experts and appraisers are needed. An appraisal is not just an appraisal, says Frank Wilke from the market observer Classic Analytics in Bochum, who shares his appraisals with a nationwide network of experts and uses them to generate vintage appraisals.

Depending on the value of the vehicle, the effort involved and the level of detail of this analysis, the price ranges from 20 euros for an online valuation and a few hundred euros for a short report to sometimes 1000 euros for a so-called restoration report.

In it, for example, all repair work is logged in detail. "But because not only the insurance rate is based on this, but also the compensation in the event of an accident or theft, the money is definitely well invested," says Wilke.

Autoforensiker Hoffmann also has a large price range. Depending on which analyzes are required, how long he has to tinker with the test subjects before he can attach his sensors, probes, probes and cameras, whether he has to fly around the world or the car comes to him in the classic city sometimes five-digit amounts come together.

"But with the millions of values ​​that such forensic reports sometimes decide on, such amounts hardly play a role in the end," he says. Whether it's an in-depth analysis or a cheaper classic car appraisal: A well-founded assessment is a form of reinsurance, says Hoffmann. Even with a Beetle convertible or any youngtimer, this increases confidence in the vehicle and thus the pride of ownership.

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