Porsche Certificate of Authenticity: what replaced it and how to order

A chassis number tells you how a body was stamped. A factory document tells you how the car left the factory. For decades Americans called that document the Certificate of Authenticity. It still exists under a new name, next to two other records that answer different questions.

What replaced the Porsche Certificate of Authenticity?

The Porsche Production Specification (PPS) replaced the Certificate of Authenticity. Porsche Cars North America updated the COA programme in 2017 and renamed it in 2019. The PPS is ordered online, costs $150, and covers every road-car model year. Motorsport variants are excluded.

Which Porsche document should you order?

What is a Porsche Kardex?

A Porsche Kardex is the factory’s original record card for a car, named after the card-index system it was filed in. Porsche used it to track warranty and service information, so it lists what mattered at delivery: chassis, engine and gearbox numbers, colour codes, options and the delivering dealer. A COA or PPS is effectively a transcription of that information onto a certificate.

What can these documents not prove?

These documents cannot prove anything that happened after the car left the factory. None records later owners, accident repairs, repaints, engine swaps or conversions. The PPS also omits production figures and dealer-fitted accessories.

They can also be silent about genuine factory work. Before 1987, slant-nose conversions done by Porsche’s Sonderwunsch department were invoiced as workshop orders rather than entered as options, so many factory slant noses from 1981–1986 do not show the work on their Kardex or COA. From 1987 the option codes M505 and M506 appear on the build record. See factory slant nose versus conversion.

How do the documents apply to a prototype claim?

A factory document is the minimum evidence for a prototype claim, and it usually settles the question. The yellow car in the $21 million “911 T prototype” listing had a Certificate of Authenticity describing a 1971 911 T, matching its chassis number. A genuine prototype would need factory records showing a non-production build.

What should you check before ordering?

Before ordering, check the chassis number and decode it, so you know which model and year the document should confirm. The Porsche VIN decoder does that instantly, and Porsche build sheet and options by VIN compares every way to get the options list. Then read the option codes on the document with the Porsche option codes guide.