Hammering down for $3.67 million, the spectacular 1972 Maserati Boomerang concept was the top seller at the Bonhams Chantilly Concours auction in Chantilly, France. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ Fiat Chrysler Automobiles boss Sergio Marchionne reaffirmed that a merger with General Motors is a “high priority” for his company and also the best strategic option for GM. More at Reuters.
+ Ford employees represented by the United Auto Workers have passed a strike authorization vote by 98 percent, following a similar procedural measure by FCA workers last week. More at The Detroit News.
+ Nissan will invest $182 million in its Sunderland, England plant where the next Juke crossover will be produced, adding 6,700 jobs. More at Automotive Business Review.
+ Veteran Trans-Am driver and 2009 champion Tomy Drissi has been banned from competition for one year following a series of on-track incidents at Mid-Ohio. More at Motorsport.com.
+ Two divisions of embattled Japanese airbag maker Takata are settling a six-year patent dispute with International Electronics & Engineering SA and its Detroit area subsidiary for $1.1 million. More at Crain’s Detroit Business.
+ Mercedes-Benz says its new Tesla-fighting electric vehicle will have a range of 311 miles and a modular platform adaptable to a range of vehicle types. More at Autoblog.
+ Toyota is investing $50 million in joint research with two top American universities, Stanford and MIT, on artificial intelligence and robots. More at the Detroit Free Press.
+ Ousted Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech blocked Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn from his goal of becoming chairman, two German publications reported. More at Reuters.
+ Six spectators were killed, including two pregnant women, and 16 were injured when a car plunged into the crowd at the Rally de A Coruña in Northwest Spain. More at CNN.
+ The inaugural Bonhams Chantilly Concours 2015 auction on the grounds of Château de Chantilly in France generated 28 vehicle sales for a total of $8.36 million. More at Sports Car Digest.
Read the previous Executive Briefing from September 4 here.
Photo courtesy of Bonhams.
Re: the car rally crash in Spain. As tragic as this is, and I don’t mean to hassle the dead, but how ignorant can you be? I see these rallies where the course is lined with spectators, inches away from the speeding cars, and then this happens, and everyone is up in arms, how could this happen? The real tragedy here, is the death of common sense.
Crowd control for these events is impossible and non-existent. That is in part what killed the Mexican Road Race.