Dr Ulrich Eichhorn: creating the original Ford Focus and transforming Bentley #197

The Intercooler

Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel

Cars, The Intercooler, Car, Motorsport, Supercar, Leisure, Automotive, Intercooler, Driving

4.8 • 868 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel are joined by Dr Ulrich Eichhorn, a contributor to The Intercooler's digital car magazine and a heavy-hitter in automotive engineering circles. Dr Eichhorn was instrumental in the development of the game-changing Ford Focus, after which he was poached by Dr Ferdinand Piëch at the Volkswagen Group. There he led the development of a W12-powered supercar that inspired the Bugatti Veyron before joining Bentley to become its chief engineer. During a long stint in Crewe he oversaw the development of a number of new models that underpinned Bentley's astonishing transformation. Later he became the most senior engineer in the entire Volkswagen Group.

This is the fascinating story of one of the most decorated careers in modern automotive engineering, told by the man himself.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Intercooler Podcast.
0:05.0	Hi everybody welcome back to the Intercooler Podcast with me Dan Prosser
0:11.0	Andrew Frankel sitting opposite me in our wizzy news studio.
0:15.0	And we're joined by a guest, a very special guest actually.
0:19.0	One of our newest writers, Dr Ulrich Eichhorn, there he is waving on the screen.
0:26.0	Ullie, this is the point in the podcast where I have to embarrass you by saying that yours has been one of the great modern automotive
0:35.5	engineering careers. You've you worked on the there's a lot more of those.
0:41.4	Well okay you worked on the original Ford Focus chassis. There's a lot more of those. Well, okay.
0:42.5	You worked on the original Ford Focus chassis,
0:45.1	which is clearly a big deal.
0:47.4	You were a board member at Bentley, responsible for engineering.
0:52.0	Around the time the company went through its tremendous renaissance and following the
0:57.2	dieselgate scandal you became the Volkswagen group's chief technical officer. Andrew Ullie is clearly a heavy hitter in
1:05.9	automotive engineering. Can you just tell us how you guys got to know one another?
1:09.7	I think we probably first met at Bentley and yeah we met up a lot over the years and I
1:20.3	well two things I've always had obviously the utmost respect for Ullie and his career, but actually we just had a lot of fun together.
1:28.0	And we are, you know, that there are car guys and there are car guys and there are car guys and early as as Cara guys you will ever come across.
1:35.4	You know a petrol head to his bones and just someone who and also as a journalist.
1:44.3	So this is a terrible sitting talking to you about early when he's sitting on the screen,
1:48.0	but early just communicates in a way that journalists understand.
1:51.6	And he was always a really good guy to talk to because
1:55.7	there was never any bullshit he'd be completely straightforward with you and and you
	...

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