“I couldn’t find the car I dreamed of,”
Ferry Porsche once said. “So I decided to build it myself.” This year marks the 70th anniversary of Porsche’s first attempt to create the perfect sports car. Throughout its history, the automaker has not only produced iterations of the best that can be found on the road, but has also created a legend that children tape above their beds and adults dream about during endless work meetings.
It is therefore no surprise that of the eight hundred thousand
Porsches produced, more than 70% are still in circulation today. Restoration workshops all over the world ensure that even the older models are worthy of wearing their original badge. Finding them scattered around Germany or the USA is not a problem.
However, few people know that one of the top Porsche factories is located just a few kilometers from Bratislava, in Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary.
Welcome to
Vehicle Experts !
If you get lost in an inconspicuous industrial district on the outskirts
of Mosonmagyaróvár , after a while of searching you will come across a treasure that is not easily seen. Until the moment when suddenly in the tangle of buildings the sheet metal body of an old
911 from the seventies shines at you from an open garage and you realize that something unusual is hiding here. Before you can recover, a white
356 Speedster whizzes past you and it seems to you that you are suddenly somewhere in the forgotten warehouses
of Zuffenhausen , not twenty kilometers from Bratislava.
A man steps out of an incredibly beautiful 356, smiling from ear to ear.
Florian Scheuer , a guy who lives and breathes Porsche, welcomes us to his dream factory. The experience can begin.
Details are key
As soon as you enter, you are immediately drawn to an abstract work of art on a high wall, composed of small 3D silhouettes of cars in a rainbow of colors. In fact, this creation does not only serve an aesthetic function. It depicts all the original colors that Porsche previously offered for the 356. All that remains for you as the owner is to choose the one that suits you best.
It is clear from the outset that working with details will be the main topic during our excursion.
After a short walk, we enter the backstage of this factory. Florian shows us the original parts warehouse, where there is a mixture of components needed for the perfect renovation of your veteran. Almost all the parts are original, however. Those that have not been preserved,
Vehicle Experts make them themselves, by hand. This is the only way to guarantee the perfect authenticity of the work.
Vehicle Experts has emphasized originality from the very beginning.
Every Porsche that passes through the Vehicle Experts gate leaves it looking like it came from the factory after almost a year.
Not only are the Vehicle Experts' work products original, but so is their story. During a walk through the workshop, Florian talks about his beginnings.
"I've owned a Porsche since I was 23. I've always worked hard, but paradoxically in completely different industries. When I decided to sell everything I had and quit my job in 2003, I moved to Barcelona for seven months. I needed to relax and think about what I wanted to do in the future. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I started having problems with my tooth in Barcelona. So I called my old friend and dentist from Augsburg. But he told me that he had moved his practice to Hungary, where his wife was from. So I flew to see him."
"After the first dental treatment, I returned to Munich by train. And for the next treatment, I decided to come in my own car, a 964 Coupé ( editor's note : Porsche 911, model year 89 - 94). Just beyond the Hungarian border, however, I was surprised to find that some local drivers take the prescribed highway speed quite seriously. The car that was overtaking a truck in front of me in the left lane suddenly slammed on the brakes and I had no choice but to crash into the guardrail, scratching my left door."
“As soon as I arrived at the dental clinic, my friend recommended a mechanic to take care of my car. When I asked about the price of the repair, I was told “we’ll figure it out later”. Believe me, when you say “we’ll figure it out later” to a German, it doesn’t sound very good (laughs). Nevertheless, I trusted him and in a few weeks the car was finished and the work he did was quite good. When I found out the price, I was more than pleasantly surprised and the idea was born!”
“So we started painting various vehicles, mainly from Austria. At first I traveled back and forth quite often, but after two years I had such a large number of customers for painting work that I decided to move to Mosonmagyaróvár.”
One big toy store
Just past the warehouse door, you enter the main part of the workshop, where you will experience the same feeling you had as a little child when you entered a toy store.
There's a treasure waiting for you around every corner, whether it's a completely stripped and freshly painted 911 S body or a serviced 911 G Targa .
Despite prejudice, many of these cars are not just works of art that are preserved in garages, waiting to multiply the value of their owner's investment.
“Just because you invest in a vintage car doesn’t mean you can’t drive it. A car that isn’t driven is, paradoxically, much more prone to breakdowns than one that is used regularly,” explains Florian. “Some of our customers drive over ten thousand kilometers per season, they use their car every day. Porsche cars are designed to be driven, they are reliable, even when they are over thirty years old.”
Currently, there are about five cars being worked on in the main workshop. It is not always just a complete renovation, but also a routine service for clients who entrust their treasures to Vehicle Experts on a regular basis. Florian greets every single employee and personally shakes their hand.
It is clear that each of the employees shares the owner's passion for what they do and lives by the mantra of a perfect product without compromise.
“Finding experienced people was not the topic of the day at first. It was clear from the beginning that whoever I found in Hungary would not be a professional in working with Porsche vehicles, specifically classic Porsches. This was not expected from the historical context, as there were no such cars here. Therefore, I knew that I would have to invest money and time in training people to acquire the necessary skills. And it is not just about hard skills, but also about instilling a philosophy that nothing less than perfection is acceptable. Every one of our employees must live by this philosophy.”
Body shop – the heart of the workshop
Our next stop continues to the body shop. The Porsche that is being renovated at Vehicle Experts is completely stripped of all components down to the bare body. The body has often suffered a lot over the years, so the entire paintwork is then removed to begin the tedious work that takes many weeks.
“The guys in the body shop really deserve the greatest admiration. You bring something into their shop that often doesn't even look like a car. They then spend endless hours fighting the rust and hand-knocking out imperfections. And when the car is finally beautiful and restored, you take it away and send them another wreck. It's like working in a vicious circle.”
Once the bodywork is complete, the car travels to the paint shop, which is known far and wide for its quality.
After all, a high standard of paintwork was the first step on the road to success.
"Initially, we didn't just specialize in Porsche cars, we did paint work on many models, such as Mustangs, Kadetts... However, when we saw that customers were also interested in deep repairs and restoration work, we expanded the business. We set up an engine shop or an interior upholstery workshop so that we could restore the old tired car to its original beauty."
At the back of the paint shop, two fully restored 911 S models stand as the company's showcase. It's unusual to see a car that's almost fifty years old and looks as if it just rolled off the production line.
All details are crafted to the highest standards, exactly as they should be.
This brings us to the topic of why Vehicle Experts only renovates Porsches.
“It became clear to us pretty early on that the key to success is the details. The workmanship of every rail, every screw. Wherever you look, the best possible work must be visible. What is not perfect is not good enough for us. That is why we decided to specialize in specific cars. And since my heart has always belonged to Porsche, that is what became it. Today, all air-cooled 911 models, from 1963 to 1998, and the historical predecessor of the 911, the 356, are our domain.”
Experience the perfect fusion of driver and machine
And then comes the biggest surprise of all, Florian prepared a white 356 Speedster for us to drive around and experience for ourselves what we have only seen so far. The opportunity to sit in a Speedster, which has undergone a complete renovation under the leadership of Vehicle Experts, does not come every day. And it was quite an experience! The feeling that this car gives you is something you will not experience in today's modern cars.
As Florian says:
“In new cars you are just a passenger, they do everything for you. The old Porsche doesn’t have ABS, traction control, power steering. You have to communicate with the car, give it commands. Everything is up to the driver.”
It is the emotion of driving that will convince you that an old Porsche is the choice of real drivers.
Modern cars are incomparably faster, more comfortable and, of course, safer. However, the twenty-first digital century can no longer offer you that analog experience that cannot be quantified by numbers of performance or acceleration. The experience of the perfect fusion of driver and machine.
That's why we have to take our hats off to people like Florian Scheuer and his team at Vehicle Experts. Thanks to them, the real driving experience remains tangible and does not fit into the hazy memories of a previous generation. Thanks to them, the cars remain in the beauty and form in which the Porsche family itself created them.
After two hours spent at Vehicle Experts, we leave with only one thought in our heads... We need to start saving money so that we can return to Mosonmagyaróvár one day and park some of Florian's works in the garage.
Vehicle Experts, thank you for the wonderful experience!
