Laura Kukuk leans casually against the garage door, next to which the family's Porsche 911 (964) is parked. Her orange-coloured shirt contrasts perfectly with the Amazon green metallic paint. Kukuk likes it colourful. She loves contrasts. And doesn't like to be pigeonholed, even though this often happens to her in her day-to-day work as a young woman in a technical industry.

She constantly alternates between tradition and modernity. Laura Kukuk is an internationally sought-after classic car specialist. Together with her father, the 30-year-old runs the Kukuk engineering office in Overath, around 30 kilometres east of Cologne. It is a global business. Today Milan, tomorrow London, the day after tomorrow New York. Many journeys to determine the originality of a vehicle or the value of a rarity. „Behind every car are special people and their stories. That's the fascination that drives me,“ says Kukuk.

One of these stories is about a bright yellow Porsche 934 Turbo RSR from 1976 that once competed at Le Mans. She was supposed to inspect the racing car for the potential buyer in the south of England. He wanted to travel with her in a private jet, but Kukuk took the scheduled flight. Being independent is important to her. The customer brought his wife and children to the appointment. „The first thing we did was start the engine, and everyone got goosebumps. It was nice to feel the enthusiasm of the whole family,“ she recalls. „Later, when I was lying under the car and saw the drag marks, I immediately saw a film of the racing car hitting the curbs at Le Mans.“

The Porsche 911 accompanies her in her job - and in her family history. Her single father regularly took Laura and her brother on skiing holidays in a 1966 911 in Sahara beige. „I associate the 911 with my childhood,“ says Kukuk. For her, classic cars are everyday cars. If something broke back then, the children helped with the repairs. Later, the original 911 was replaced by the 964 in the rare shade of green, which is still the family car today.

Kukuk gets in the car and turns the ignition key. From Cologne's Rheinau harbour, the route leads through the Bergisches Land back to the office in Overath. 40 kilometres, gentle hills, sweeping bends and wild poppies, paddocks and restaurants with idyllic names such as „Auf dem Berge“. You can't miss the office in Overath. An orange tricycle van in front of the door is the company logo and signpost.

Inside, expert reports are lined up like books on the shelves. Reconstructing the history of a car, authenticity checks and market analyses are detective work. „Sometimes I feel like Sherlock Holmes,“ says Kukuk. Although she gained an insight into her father's work at an early age, she initially kept her distance. „During puberty, I tended to resist it. I went to a language and drawing school in Florence,“ she explains. Creativity is still an important part of her life today. She often meets up with friends at art exhibitions. Or she gets out the easel herself and gives free rein to her feelings on paper. Sometimes she also grabs her skateboard or arranges to go waterskiing on the Rhine.

„Behind every car are special people and their stories.“

Laura Kukuk

On the other hand, there was always this technical curiosity. Even before leaving school, she completed internships at an independent Porsche tuner and at the Porsche racing team Kremer Racing. She then went on to study mechanical and automotive engineering rather than automotive design, as originally planned. Kukuk: „I had doubts as to whether I could do it. But I thought to myself: if I really have what it takes, I'll see it through.“

She went through with it. Including an internship at McLaren Automotive and a year as a development engineer in Woking, England. After completing her studies, she joined the family business. „I was interested in exploring the history and soul of a classic car instead of creating something rather anonymous as an engineer,“ she says.

The next appointment. Laura Kukuk loads her equipment into the 964 and heads to the halls of a Porsche specialist in nearby Bergisch Gladbach, where she is to inspect a current 911 „Belgian Legend Edition“ (992). The special model based on the 911 Carrera 4S, limited to 75 units, is a tribute to racing legend Jacky Ickx. „I find it fascinating that the design language of the 911 has not changed to this day. You can always recognise a Porsche, even in the dark.“

She uses scientific methods for her expert reports in order to obtain data that is as objective as possible. She and her father are known worldwide for this. „We see the vehicle itself as the source and not just what is written in the papers,“ she says. Her tools include 3D scanning, paint layer thickness measurement, ultrasound and spectroscopy for material analysis and dating. Added to this are historical expertise, meticulousness and craftsmanship. „The sheet metal of a Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 is 0.88 millimetres thick. This is only 0.8 millimetres for the lightweight construction of this derivative. This small but decisive difference of 0.08 millimetres must be scientifically determined in an assessment.“

Despite her expertise and experience, Kukuk's analyses are not always well received. „I'm young, a woman, blonde and I also share unpleasant facts. Some people don't get on with that - in exactly that order,“ she laughs. At the latest when the sceptics hear that she is a lecturer in vehicle restoration at the TH Cologne, they give in.

Another side job: Laura Kukuk is one of the few female judges at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este in Italy. Until now, women have only played a minor role in this exclusive circle of the most valuable classic cars on Lake Como. This tradition is changing. And Laura Kukuk is in exactly the right place.

Because once she starts talking about all the special cases in classic car valuation, she is completely in her element. She moves from one detail to the next. It becomes a long monologue in which terms are used that only experts understand. You can tell she loves what she does.