About us
Who Are We
At Klassik Automotive Training School our mandate is to teach the skills required to work on classic or vintage vehicles, primarily concentrating on the 911, 912 and 930 Porsche models. Many of the skills required to work on these cars have been lost to time. Back in the early days of Porsche, the mechanic would be required to adjust just about everything in the vehicle. Today this has changed substantially due to computers managing most if not everything that is installed in a vehicle today.
A mechanic was expected to be able to diagnosis systems through reasonable deductive reasoning. This meant that he or she should have a very good knowledge of the system, how it should work, and where to start if there was a problem. In today’s vehicles with onboard diagnostics, that alert the tech to the problem area, this often leads to a tech that knows less about how the system actually works. This is not to say that a modern day technician is not as good as a mechanic, it just means they have different skills.
Our Mission
Our goals are to teach the skills needed to be able to restore and maintain these vehicles in the 21st century. This includes using some more modern tools that were just not available when these cars were built. It also means learning about how the system works and operates. If we know how the system operates, we can form a test plan to validate its operation. This means learning what an electrical signal should look like, how to read a wiring diagram, how to adjust valves, how to adjust a carburetor, and how to tune an engine that is not computer controlled to name just a few.
The Porsche repairer has to also consider that the vehicle they are working on is now 40 plus years old. This usually means that it has had years of repairs that may not have been in the best interest of the vehicle. It also means that there is no longer a standard rebuild. Most of the time parts have been over machined or modified, components that used to work together no longer do because systems have degraded from age. This means looking at the repair in a wider scope than was previously taught when repairing new vehicles.
What We Do
Our online courses have been designed to address not only the fundamentals of the repair, but also how to deal with years of poor service and the effects of time. We will show you what we have learned in the last 30 years of working on these vehicles. Online courses will cover all aspects of the vehicle including Weber Carburetors, solex carburetors, Ignition distributor, just to name a few.
We aim to do this using a variety of mediums, from video courses to electronic manuals, (E-books), information cards, to excel downloads to help with calculations. We feel that using modern tools and computers still have a valid purpose in keeping these cars on the road.
Online courses will be available to both professional and individual consumers that are interested in learning how to correctly repair these systems. We also will be offering courses directed at those that are in the automotive business that are designed to teach those people how to stay profitable in the vintage car market area. These courses will be limited to those in the business.
Our history
Kurt Donohoe has had over thirty years of experience in the automotive field. Starting in 1988 working for a BMW dealership, shortly before securing an apprenticeship with a Porsche Dealership in 1989. Kurt completed the Porsche apprentice training program and was award Porsche 2nd year apprentice of the year out of all the Porsche dealers in Australia in 1990. Kurt has founded two automotive repair shops specializing in German automobiles, specifically Porsche. He also founded a Porsche online parts warehouse and has designed and engineered several replacement parts for Porsche vehicles.