2006 Los Angeles: Ulrich Eichhorn Interview Video

Watch the video interview of Ulrich Eichhorn

Transcript

00:00 Now, a lot of people might find it a bit odd that a German guy is basically in charge of

00:09 one of the most iconic of British brands.

00:12 Did you have to readjust your expectations, your cultural road map as it were?

00:16 Well, I've always been a fan of English cars and of some Italian and some German, basically

00:21 I've been a car guy.

00:23 Something that you learn very early on is that you have to absorb the character of the

00:28 car you're trying to make and adjust what you're doing to that.

00:33 And it doesn't matter then if you're doing a Ford Focus or if you're doing a super sports

00:38 car or if you're doing a Bentley, but you have to get into the right mindset and I readily

00:42 admit that this mindset I like particularly well.

00:45 And one of my old cars is actually a 1960 Bentley S2, the first car where the big V8

00:51 was introduced and I'm particularly proud that I'm in charge of that engine now.

00:55 The English seem to have a talent for creating great ideas but never following them through.

01:00 It seems to me you're almost like the follow through guy, you've unlocked the potential

01:03 of the Bentley brand.

01:05 This is something, this is one of my belief sentences so to say.

01:09 The concept defines the potential but the detailed execution defines the end result.

01:14 And when you really get into the detail it's fantastic.

01:17 And this is really something where the English approach and the German approach are really

01:22 synergistic.

01:23 You get a fantastic stroke of genius, a nice concept, good craftsmanship and all that from

01:28 the English approach.

01:29 And then in the German approach you go at it step by step for a long time methodically

01:34 getting to the bottom of things and make one exactly like the other.

01:38 And out comes a fantastic car that the customer loves and the engineer loves.

01:42 Right.

01:43 Uli, thank you very much.

01:44 Thank you Angus.

01:46 [Music]