[Des]

Shocked to hear this! I hope Uwe is okay and get's in touch with his family and company soon!

[yearone]

I was in Jo-burg two weeks ago and its a sketchy place, hope he turns up safely. Somebody must know something like where he was staying etc?

[jcaramia]

Wow, horrible news. Keep us posted!

[Hernando]

This is horrible news. I truly wonder what happened. I hope that he is ok. Does anybody have any news on this?

DJ, let us know what his partners down there say. Maybe Mike can chime in. Are kidnappings frequent in S.A.?

[DJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yearone »

I was in Jo-burg two weeks ago and its a sketchy place, hope he turns up safely. Somebody must know something like where he was staying etc?

I tried the office earlier today hoping to catch his secretary at least but no luck on my end. My last communication was on the 5th of Feb, then radio silence.

[littlebulldogg]

hope they find him safely!

[Mike S]

DJ referred me to this thread. This is my first knowledge of these unfortunate turn of events.

Let me just say that kidnappings are no more frequet here then there are in the USA.
However, if nobody knows what the nature of his visit was? Perhaps he is visiting he Kruger National Park? There is not much signal there for telephones?

I too hope it is nothing serious. Normally if any tourists go missing it is on the news. I will keep an eye out for anything.

[Renovatiopr]

Wow Scary news indeed. Hope this is just a communication failure and not a mis unfortunate turn of events. My prayers and best wishes to him and his fam. Keep us informed.

[DJ]

From Carsuk.net

The name Uwe Gemballa might not immediately strike a chord. Unless you’re a complete petrol-head the creations of Uwe and his eponymous company may have passed you by. But if you read here regularly you will undoubtedly know that Uwe Gemballa has a big reputation for customising Porsches, often to the extreme.

More recently Gemballa has turned their hand to customising the Enzo Ferrai, and we ran a story a short while ago about the Gemballa MIG-U1 Enzo created for clients in the Middle East and now a part of Gemballas stock customisation offerings

Earlier today we had a call from a contact of Cars UK who deals with Uwe on an almost daily basis to say that Uwe had flown to South Africa a couple of weeks ago, and no one has heard from him since. So we thought we’d have a dig around and see what we could find out. We checked with a big dealer in Germany where the dealer principle speaks to Uwe on a daily basis. Same story. We also spoke to Alain Class Motors in the Middle East who are involved with the MIG-U1 – the same story there too.

Then we came across a post on Teamspeed saying exactly the same thing. Teamspeed have been dealing with Uwe on a joint project and speaking to him on a daily basis – but they too have lost contact.

Which is all very odd. Obviously everyone hopes there’s a simple explanation for Uwe’s disappearence, but South Africa can be a dangerous place, and Johannesburg particularly so.

So we all hope Uwe turns up alive and well very soon. The car world would be a less interesting place without his creations.

Read more: Uwe Gemballa missing in South Africa | Cars UK | UK Car News

[bonehead]

Hope he turns up okay.