25 March 2022
In October 2010, Uwe Gemballa was found dead in South Africa. His murder resulted from a money smuggling operation that turned against him.
Porsche has made a name for producing some of Europe’s most iconic sports and racing cars. This incredible legacy was built on a win after win in the automotive world, both on the track and in the showroom.
Porsche are well known for their iconic round headlights, and they were not aerodynamic in racing. Porsche modified their race cars to have sloping noses to overcome the problem. A by-product of this design was the requirement for Porsche owners to personalise their steeds. A number of the ‘tuning’ businesses offered this modification; the most notable was Gemballa.
Gemballa took this one stage further and found a niche, and became synonymous with bespoke luxurious Porsches.
Since the crash of 2008, Gemballa’s company had been in decline and with that decline came desperation.
A phone call from a South African ‘investor’, Jerome Saphire, encouraged the desperate Gemballa to South Africa, where he was kidnapped and murdered.
An associate of the former mob boss, Radovan Krejcir, stated that Gemballa had agreed to allow Krejcir to smuggle copious amounts of money to South Africa inside the Gemballa cars. A Porsche Cayenne was supposed to arrive in South Africa with 1,000,000 euros, but it was empty when it got there.
The aforementioned mob boss found this displeasing, and he allegedly ordered to have Gemballa killed.
And the happy ending. Despite tragically losing his father, his 27-year-old son, Marc, has a newly founded company Marc Philipp Gemballa GmbH (not associated with Gemballa GmbH), launched his first project, starting a new era in 2021. He intends to continue the legacy of Uwe Gemballa.