Rene Hensler

How One Engineer Landed a Dream Job of Developing Cars for Bugatti

By Rene Hensler 2 months ago

From Autoweek

Meet Sven Bohnhorst, the luckiest man in the world. Why, you ask? Because he gets paid to drive Bugattis around racetracks. Afterwards, he makes changes to the Bugatti and drives it again to see whether he likes it or not. Bohnhorst is a chassis setup engineer at Bugatti, and he does things like tune the steering on cars like the upcoming Chiron Pur Sport. The car that Bugatti limited sales to 60 at a price of 3,000,000 euros, which is about $3,400,000, is his development mule.

Intrigued and curious how Bohnhorst managed to get this position, we asked him how he got the job, what makes the Pur Sport stand out from the standard Chiron and much more.

Photo credit: Bugatti

Autoweek: How did you become an engineer at Bugatti?

Sven Bohnhorst: I started at Bugatti as a trainee, then continued as a working student and

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30 Vintage Cars for Under $10,000

By Rene Hensler 2 months ago

America’s love affair with the car runs deep. From Portland to, well, Portland, every town in America is probably going to have at least one gearhead who can rattle off all the differences between model years on 1940s Fords like they’re reciting the alphabet. For them, buying and/or restoring some of the classic cars of yesteryear is pretty much the only hobby that makes any sense.

And while the phrase “collecting vintage cars” might immediately conjure up images of country club elites and wildly rich retired comedians, it certainly doesn’t have to be that way. There are cheaper hobbies, but you can keep your car-collecting costs low if you’re ready to compromise on buying cars in mint condition. Whether you enjoy doing the restoration work yourself or just don’t mind the wear and tear, you can find options for true classics that can be had for less than five figures.

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Coronavirus is a car sales roller coaster with an uncertain end

By Rene Hensler 2 months ago

With no handy playbook, no precedents for the toxic economic fallout from COVID-19, the only thing predictable about auto sales is now unpredictability. And with viral spikes forcing fresh public restrictions — including in California, the nation’s largest auto market — any automotive recovery seems likely to follow the same topsy-turvy course.

Analysts say the worst may be over. But they can’t be sure. The pandemic drove auto sales to a sickly, 30-year-low in April, as Americans bought just 633,000 cars — down 53% from April 2019, and worse than any sales month of the Great Recession in 2009. 

June brought a few rays of hope. But June’s annualized selling rate of 12.9 million units was still a stark reminder of the booming 17.2-million pace of the previous June. Second-quarter sales at General Motors, Ford and FiatChrysler fell 30% or more. Tesla’s mere 5% drop —and a stock

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