MCG Executive Briefing for August 4, 2017

The fabulous 1955 Cadillac Die Valkyrie by Brooks Stevens will be offered for public sale for the first time at the Worldwide Auctioneers Auburn sale on September 2. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing. 

 

 

Today’s headlines:

+   Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne confirmed that the Italian sports car maker is indeed working on a crossover utility vehicle and will unveil a new product strategy in 2018. More at Bloomberg.com. 

+   German carmakers are likely to stop developing new combustion engines within six years as they focus on electric powertrains, according to supplier Continental. More at Automotive News Europe. 

+   Toyota and Mazda are expected to announce a $1.6 billion joint manufacturing plant in the United States with 4,000 workers and an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles. More at Reuters. 

+   Oliver Schmidt, a former VW executive indicted in the automaker’s diesel emissions cheating scandal, is expected to plead guilty to two of three original charges. More at The Detroit News. 

+   NASCAR has standardized the location of the overtime line at the start/finish line beginning this weekend at Watkins Glen and continuing for the rest of this season. More at Fox Sports. 

+   Automakers are sweetening their discounts, buyer incentives, and financing offers in an effort to combat sliding sales and rising new car inventories. More at USA Today. 

+   Hedge funds and short sellers betting against Tesla lost more than half a billion dollars this week as the electric car maker’s share price continued to advance. More at CNBC. 

+   The Brooks Stevens 1955 Cadillac Die Valkyrie with body by Spohn will be offered at the Worldwide Auctioneers Auburn sale on September 2. More at Hemmings Daily. 

+   Mercedes-Benz has approved its first metal replacement component created with 3D printing, a thermostat housing for older truck and Unimog models. More at Motor Trend. 

+   Surpassing the previous record of 709, more than 1,000 entries have been received for the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, hosted this year by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. More at Racer. 

Review the previous Executive Briefing from July 31 here.  

Photo by Brooks Stevens Associates. 

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4 thoughts on “MCG Executive Briefing for August 4, 2017

  1. Two thoughts
    Thought 1 – How can a company that spends One Billion Dollars in a single quarter, and in fact has posted a profit only twice in it’s entire history, have a share price that advances? Talk about irrational exuberance.

    Thought 2 – That 1955 Cadillac Die Valkyrie looks like a Studebaker Hawk that took a few to many hits of LSD.

    • Remember, Brooks Stevens did a fair amount of work for Studebaker over the years. This is one of my all time dream cars. It will be interesting to see how it does at auction in today’s evolving collector car market.

  2. I’m glad NASCAR is clearing up its green-white-checker rules, but I still have no idea what’s going on.

    • They’re dropping a mistake they don’t want to admit they made. They call it “standarizing” when in reality, it’s going back to the way it was before they made the “overtime line” rule.

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