Interviews
Interviews
Podcast
30.6.2021
Manfred Hering has just returned. He spent three days in Hamburg, even though his company is actually based in Wuppertal. Hering is actually always on the lookout for old Porsches that he can restore with his company. At first, he can't even find a free desk to conduct the interview on the phone. Hering has just invested heavily again - not in the next car, but this time in 600 pieces of furniture from the 1970s, which are now being transported from Hamburg to Wuppertal. He wants to use them to furnish his new store.
I got myself a limited edition photo box from Neal Preston about Queen. Preston had accompanied the band for many years. All the surviving members signed the box. It cost 15,000 euros.
Strictly speaking, I actually bought two of them, one for a friend. They weren't on sale, but I know a representative of Neal Preston personally.
I simply love his pictures. The photo book is also more comprehensive than the one for 50 euros. It also includes 5 silver gelatine prints - special black and white pictures from the time. I simply have a great interest in special things that have a collector's value - and this photo book is exactly that.
I am at least a big fan of mid-century modern, but I wouldn't describe myself as nostalgic. For Early 911s, we have now bought the Kemper house in Wuppertal from the American star architect Richard J. Neutra. After five years, we are currently in the final phase of restoration. We want to restore as much as possible to its original state. We have only turned the former swimming pool into a pop-up store, where customers can experience the 70s, Porsche and the architecture of the time.
At our location on Westring, we are also currently building a cube that will fit 200 cars. There, too, the focus is on mid-century. Customers will be able to buy everything in the cube. In addition to our cars, this also includes vintage furniture, watches - ultimately all the things that people used to buy in the 70s. They can also find the original poster for their Porsche there.
Because until then they were still air-cooled. Porsche then switched to water cooling. We restore all air-cooled Porsches from the 356 to the 993. Our focus is on vehicles with a special history, press vehicles, prototypes and so-called paint-to-sample vehicles (PTS).
Yes, but that's not the reason why we only restore Porsches built up to 1998. We always want to restore them to their original condition and have built up expertise in air-cooled vehicles over the years. The restoration effort required for water-cooled vehicles is not worthwhile given our quality standards.
On the one hand, I love the variety of colors of the Porsches from that time. Back then, some customers ordered their Porsches in special colors (PTS). There are only a few of these models, which makes them so special. On the other hand, these cars are a symbol of understatement for me.
Yes - but you can't see the price on the cars. On average, restored cars with a two-year warranty cost us around 300,000 euros. Incidentally, this applies worldwide: regardless of whether our customers drive their Porsche in the USA, China or through Mexico.
It's quite a mix. Of course there are also nostalgics among them, many want to fulfill their childhood dream. Some also use it as an investment, especially now in the low-interest phase. However, customers who come to us are less interested in quantity than in quality. They don't necessarily want to have five cars in their garage. Most of them also want to drive our Porsches.
No, not for the most part. We always restore the cars to their original condition. At most, we install an air conditioning system or the Porsche navigation system. Otherwise, if the car's birth certificate states that it was painted red, then that's what we do.
Yes, but we're sticking to our guns. We have 600 projects for sale, so our customers are sure to find something suitable. But if they don't have the same ideas about originality as we do, then they're in the wrong place.
The seventies in particular were the best time for me, especially in terms of aesthetics and design. The reconstruction phase in Germany was over. In the seventies, culture was able to blossom again and people started to really live again. I'm 50 years old myself, so I didn't experience this period myself, but know it mainly from my grandfather's stories.
When I was about five years old, I sat in my grandfather's tractor - a Porsche, by the way. My grandfather was a gardener back then - and my great role model.
I come from Andernach, which was a Rhenish pumice area. Many gardeners were able to make money quickly by selling their farmland and turning it into building land. But my grandfather remained steadfast and refused to be bent. He enjoyed the physical work and kept his fields until his death. That's probably why, even as a child, it wasn't my goal to become rich.
At least the field I inherited still is.
On the contrary, I wanted to do everything except cars! At the time, my parents were friends with a Ferrari dealer from Andernach. He always wanted me to start working for him. I couldn't even imagine that. I started a comic mail order business when I was 14, which was much more relevant back then than it is today. I used to go to the flea market at weekends and buy and sell comics. I did that until I joined the army. I then went on to study industrial engineering.
Sport has always been very important to me. Parallel to my studies, I was a tennis teacher and a sports lecturer at a university, for example. In 1997, I moved to Düsseldorf and opened a corporate communications department. It was there that I had my first encounter with a Porsche a short time later.
Actually, it was rather the opposite. In 2005, I bought an old Aston Martin DB 5 and a 1966 Porsche 911 for a project with a customer. On the first drive of the old Porsche, the Fuchs rim cracked, and on the second, the engine broke. When I looked for spare parts, I realized that none were available. That's when I saw the market, asked a friend of mine who is a car mechanic, gave up my corporate communications and founded Early 911s.
At a certain point, I would have had to change a lot for that, and I didn't want to. In this world, you only have two options: Either you stay small and try to realize yourself. That's difficult and there's not much left at the end of the year. Or you can join a network, but then your creativity falls flat. I didn't want that.
I usually travel across Germany in my VW bus. Incidentally, the smell of petrol in old cars often makes me sick, so it's not for me.
There is already a hybrid system for 15,000 euros, which I can also fit to the engines of the old Porsches. We will also be offering this in the future. The Porsche CEO has also announced that he wants to offer solutions for the old 911 series. We restore very exclusive cars here, so there will always be a market. I'm not worried about that. Incidentally, the advantage of our cars over new cars is that you don't lose 20 percent of their value when you drive them off the dealer's lot.
No, not at all. Today, I have so many opportunities to realize myself, even now, for example, to combine the Neutra house with Early 911s. I could certainly be wealthier if I approached one thing or another a little differently. But for me, money is only ever a means of being able to drive creation forward and that is currently working very well. An investor once offered me 80 million euros to take part in Early 911s. I declined, because then I would have been under his thumb and lost my freedom.
About Manfred Hering: He spent his childhood in Andernach. He gained his first small professional experience at the age of 14 when he opened a comic mail order business. After his time in the German Armed Forces, he studied industrial engineering. He worked in the advertising industry for a while and was the owner of an agency. But Hering decided to do something completely different and founded Early 911s in Wuppertal in 2006.
Interviews
30.6.2021
Jan Schulte
There are probably more classic Porsche 911s in Manfred Hering's workshop than in the car manufacturer's museum - even though Hering is not a car enthusiast, as he says himself. In this interview, he explains how the former advertiser came across the Porsche - and why customers sometimes pay him a million euros for a restored car.
Manfred Hering has just returned. He spent three days in Hamburg, even though his company is actually based in Wuppertal. Hering is actually always on the lookout for old Porsches that he can restore with his company. At first, he can't even find a free desk to conduct the interview on the phone. Hering has just invested heavily again - not in the next car, but this time in 600 pieces of furniture from the 1970s, which are now being transported from Hamburg to Wuppertal. He wants to use them to furnish his new store.
I got myself a limited edition photo box from Neal Preston about Queen. Preston had accompanied the band for many years. All the surviving members signed the box. It cost 15,000 euros.
Strictly speaking, I actually bought two of them, one for a friend. They weren't on sale, but I know a representative of Neal Preston personally.
I simply love his pictures. The photo book is also more comprehensive than the one for 50 euros. It also includes 5 silver gelatine prints - special black and white pictures from the time. I simply have a great interest in special things that have a collector's value - and this photo book is exactly that.
I am at least a big fan of mid-century modern, but I wouldn't describe myself as nostalgic. For Early 911s, we have now bought the Kemper house in Wuppertal from the American star architect Richard J. Neutra. After five years, we are currently in the final phase of restoration. We want to restore as much as possible to its original state. We have only turned the former swimming pool into a pop-up store, where customers can experience the 70s, Porsche and the architecture of the time.
At our location on Westring, we are also currently building a cube that will fit 200 cars. There, too, the focus is on mid-century. Customers will be able to buy everything in the cube. In addition to our cars, this also includes vintage furniture, watches - ultimately all the things that people used to buy in the 70s. They can also find the original poster for their Porsche there.
Because until then they were still air-cooled. Porsche then switched to water cooling. We restore all air-cooled Porsches from the 356 to the 993. Our focus is on vehicles with a special history, press vehicles, prototypes and so-called paint-to-sample vehicles (PTS).
Yes, but that's not the reason why we only restore Porsches built up to 1998. We always want to restore them to their original condition and have built up expertise in air-cooled vehicles over the years. The restoration effort required for water-cooled vehicles is not worthwhile given our quality standards.
On the one hand, I love the variety of colors of the Porsches from that time. Back then, some customers ordered their Porsches in special colors (PTS). There are only a few of these models, which makes them so special. On the other hand, these cars are a symbol of understatement for me.
Yes - but you can't see the price on the cars. On average, restored cars with a two-year warranty cost us around 300,000 euros. Incidentally, this applies worldwide: regardless of whether our customers drive their Porsche in the USA, China or through Mexico.
It's quite a mix. Of course there are also nostalgics among them, many want to fulfill their childhood dream. Some also use it as an investment, especially now in the low-interest phase. However, customers who come to us are less interested in quantity than in quality. They don't necessarily want to have five cars in their garage. Most of them also want to drive our Porsches.
No, not for the most part. We always restore the cars to their original condition. At most, we install an air conditioning system or the Porsche navigation system. Otherwise, if the car's birth certificate states that it was painted red, then that's what we do.
Yes, but we're sticking to our guns. We have 600 projects for sale, so our customers are sure to find something suitable. But if they don't have the same ideas about originality as we do, then they're in the wrong place.
The seventies in particular were the best time for me, especially in terms of aesthetics and design. The reconstruction phase in Germany was over. In the seventies, culture was able to blossom again and people started to really live again. I'm 50 years old myself, so I didn't experience this period myself, but know it mainly from my grandfather's stories.
When I was about five years old, I sat in my grandfather's tractor - a Porsche, by the way. My grandfather was a gardener back then - and my great role model.
I come from Andernach, which was a Rhenish pumice area. Many gardeners were able to make money quickly by selling their farmland and turning it into building land. But my grandfather remained steadfast and refused to be bent. He enjoyed the physical work and kept his fields until his death. That's probably why, even as a child, it wasn't my goal to become rich.
At least the field I inherited still is.
On the contrary, I wanted to do everything except cars! At the time, my parents were friends with a Ferrari dealer from Andernach. He always wanted me to start working for him. I couldn't even imagine that. I started a comic mail order business when I was 14, which was much more relevant back then than it is today. I used to go to the flea market at weekends and buy and sell comics. I did that until I joined the army. I then went on to study industrial engineering.
Sport has always been very important to me. Parallel to my studies, I was a tennis teacher and a sports lecturer at a university, for example. In 1997, I moved to Düsseldorf and opened a corporate communications department. It was there that I had my first encounter with a Porsche a short time later.
Actually, it was rather the opposite. In 2005, I bought an old Aston Martin DB 5 and a 1966 Porsche 911 for a project with a customer. On the first drive of the old Porsche, the Fuchs rim cracked, and on the second, the engine broke. When I looked for spare parts, I realized that none were available. That's when I saw the market, asked a friend of mine who is a car mechanic, gave up my corporate communications and founded Early 911s.
At a certain point, I would have had to change a lot for that, and I didn't want to. In this world, you only have two options: Either you stay small and try to realize yourself. That's difficult and there's not much left at the end of the year. Or you can join a network, but then your creativity falls flat. I didn't want that.
I usually travel across Germany in my VW bus. Incidentally, the smell of petrol in old cars often makes me sick, so it's not for me.
There is already a hybrid system for 15,000 euros, which I can also fit to the engines of the old Porsches. We will also be offering this in the future. The Porsche CEO has also announced that he wants to offer solutions for the old 911 series. We restore very exclusive cars here, so there will always be a market. I'm not worried about that. Incidentally, the advantage of our cars over new cars is that you don't lose 20 percent of their value when you drive them off the dealer's lot.
No, not at all. Today, I have so many opportunities to realize myself, even now, for example, to combine the Neutra house with Early 911s. I could certainly be wealthier if I approached one thing or another a little differently. But for me, money is only ever a means of being able to drive creation forward and that is currently working very well. An investor once offered me 80 million euros to take part in Early 911s. I declined, because then I would have been under his thumb and lost my freedom.
About Manfred Hering: He spent his childhood in Andernach. He gained his first small professional experience at the age of 14 when he opened a comic mail order business. After his time in the German Armed Forces, he studied industrial engineering. He worked in the advertising industry for a while and was the owner of an agency. But Hering decided to do something completely different and founded Early 911s in Wuppertal in 2006.
About the author
Jan Schulte
Jan Schulte writes about business and politics.
