Petrolicious Spotlights Piston Workshop with Runge Cars

A Film About Opportunity

In Runge Cars: Building the Next Generation of Coachbuilders, Vincent spends five days learning alongside Chris Runge, founder of Runge Cars. Chris introduces him to the company’s coachbuilding and design processes, as well as metal shaping, welding, fabrication, and finishing.

The film follows Vince from flat sheets of aluminum to finished automobile panels. More importantly, it captures what happens when an emerging enthusiast is welcomed into a professional shop and given time to learn from a master of the craft.

“Spending time here has really opened a new door,” Vince says in the film.

Supporting the Next Generation

Piston’s mission is to help bring more young people into the collector car industry. Scholarships are an essential part of that work, helping students pursue the technical education needed to build careers in the field.

But tuition support alone is not enough.

Young people also need opportunities to meet professionals, enter working shops, develop specialized skills, and understand where their education can lead. They need mentors, practical experience, and access to the community that will one day employ and collaborate with them.

The Runge Cars workshop brought those elements together for Vince. Piston connected a promising scholar with an experience he might not otherwise have had; Runge Cars opened its doors and shared its expertise.

“I’ve wanted to have kind of a hub that we could work with, a nonprofit that could connect [people] wanting to learn this craft. And the Piston Foundation was the perfect resource for that. They have a passion to get young people the skills they need and the placement to pursue careers in this.” — Chris Runge

From Enthusiasm to a Career

Vince arrived with a background in fabrication and a longstanding interest in cars. At Runge Cars, he built on that foundation while seeing another important side of automotive work: how a passion for craftsmanship can become a professional life.

Chris’s own story makes the connection especially meaningful. When he began exploring coachbuilding, he had no obvious mentor or school to turn to. He taught himself with books, experimentation, a homemade English wheel, and the tools he could find. Today, through Runge Cars, he is passing that knowledge forward.

The film shows that the collector car world needs more than enthusiasts. It needs skilled, curious, committed people who can preserve hard-won knowledge and bring new energy to the industry.

Thanks to Petrolicious and Runge Cars

We are grateful to our Piston Community Partner Petrolicious for telling this story, and to Chris Runge and Runge Cars for giving Vince an extraordinary opportunity to learn.

The film offers a close look at one scholar’s experience, but it reflects Piston’s larger commitment: opening doors for the next generation of automotive talent through education, training, mentorship, and meaningful access to the collector car community.