Gemballa

Gemballa GmbH is an automobile manufacturing and tuning company based in Leonberg, Germany, specializing in customization and aftermarket parts mainly for Porsche cars. Gemballa was founded by and named after Uwe Gemballa in 1981. In May 2010, the Gemballa factory was seized by German authorities and shut down following the disappearance of Uwe Gemballa who was later found dead in South Africa. CEO Andreas Schwarz and investor Steffen Korbach were able to buy the brand rights and name rights from Gemballa in August 2010 and refounded the company as Gemballa GmbH. In 2016, Steffen Korbach became the sole CEO of the company and Alexander Schwarz stepped down. Korbach reportedly also took over the shares in the company from his former partner Schwarz. A Gemballa GTR producing 600 hp (450 kW), based on a Porsche 911 (996), held the lap record for street legal vehicles at the Nürburgring in 2001 when Wolfgang Kaufmann lowered it to 7:32:52 min, taking the record from Porsche tuner TechArt. It was later beaten by a Porsche Carrera GT, by less than a second.