At $3.08 million, this 1961 Ferrari 400 Superamerica Coupe Aerodynamico was among the top 10 sellers at last week’s RM Sotheby’s Scottsdale sale. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ Ford reports its 2016 net income will drop by $2 billion due to a change in its accounting methods for employee pensions and retiree benefits. More at the Detroit Free Press.
+ BMW’s chief of design since 2012, Karim Habib, is leaving the automaker, a company source disclosed to the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport. More at Automotive News Europe.
+ On Sunday, President Donald Trump pledged to begin renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in talks with the leaders of Mexico and Canada. More at USA Today.
+ NASCAR is set to unveil sweeping changes to the points system and event format of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup with races split up into multiple segments. More at Motorsport.com.
+ General Motors plans to introduce 18 new or refreshed models in China in 2017, around half of them SUVs or multipurpose vehicles (MPVs). More at Yahoo! Finance.
+ British boutique automaker Zenos, producer of the 350 hp, 1,600 lb. E10 S sports roadster, has gone bankrupt and is in search of new investors. More at Autoblog.
+ Mercedes-Benz hopes to introduce the already-confirmed Mercedes-Maybach luxury SUV on the next-generation GLS platform by 2019. More at UK Autocar.
+ Billionaire investor Carl Icahn will take full ownership of Southfield-based auto parts supplier Federal-Mogul Holdings Corp. in a deal valued at roughly $30 million. More at Crain’s Detroit Business.
+ The RM Sotheby’s Arizona 2017 auction on January 19-20 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix generated nearly $54 million in total sales and an 89 percent sell-through rate. More at Sports Car Digest.
+ Series owner Liberty Media has set aside $400 million of shares in Formula 1 for teams to purchase their own stakes in the sport once its takeover is complete. More at Racer.
Review the previous Executive Briefing from January 20 here.
Photo courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.
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Looks like NASCAR is slowly dying, desperately trying ideas to save themselves while being blind to the actual problems, the cars no longer resemble “stock” cars, the points system is too complicated, the races have became boring and too long. Attendence will continue to slide as will TV viewers. Sad to see it go this route, a shell of it’s former self. Too much trying to make everything equal like the old IROC series was. There never was a “level playing field” in auto racing, somebody was always better than others, tweaking the rules to make every car look and perform the same was a bad idea.