MCG Executive Briefing for June 23, 2017

A star of the movie Le Mans, this 1970 Porsche 917K is expected to bring up to $16 million at the Gooding and Company Pebble Beach auction. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing. 

 

 

Today’s headlines:

+   Ford will shift production of the Focus compact sedan from Wayne, Michigan to a plant in China, and it will import some of the volume back into the United States. More at CNN Money. 

+   Kia once again topped the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study for new car buyers, marking the second consecutive year the South Korean brand ranked first. More at The Detroit News.  

+   The all-electric production Audi E-tron Sportback, based on the concept that debuted in Shanghai this year, will be produced at the automaker’s Brussels plant in 2019. More at Motor Trend. 

+   Road course specialist Billy Johnson will make his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut at Sonoma Raceway this weekend with Richard Petty Motorsports. More at ESPN. 

+   Storied British car maker Morgan has repurchased the land on which its historic factory stands in Malvern Link, Worstershire, England. More at Hemmings Daily. 

+   At the Nürburgring in Germany, a Camaro ZL1 1LE driven by GM engineer Bill Wise turned a lap of 7:16.04, faster than the Nissan GT-R and Ferrari 488 GTB. More at Road & Track. 

+   Chris Lattner, Tesla’s head of autonomous car technology who left Apple to join the automaker in January, confirmed that he has left the company. More at USA Today. 

+   A freshly restored 1970 Porsche 917K formerly owned by Jo Siffert will be among the headliners at the Gooding and Company Pebble Beach auction on August 18-19. More at Sports Car Digest. 

+   The resignation of Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick has cast doubt upon the ride-sharing company’s long-anticipated initial public offering. More at Business Insider.  

+   Houston-based Risi Competizione, which lost a Ferrari 488 GTE at Le Mans, will miss at least the next three IMSA championship races due to budgetary issues. More at Racer.

Review the previous Executive Briefing from June 19 here.  

Photo courtesy of RM Sotheby’s. 

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One thought on “MCG Executive Briefing for June 23, 2017

  1. The Camaro was quite impressive. All that with 6500 rpm and a lot of understeer!
    Give it a mild diet,, get rid of the AC, trim etc and some proper race tyres and it will be great production racecar.
    $13m for the Porsche? What do you do with it? Too expensive [and probably too expensive as well] to race and useless for much anything else.

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