Nutson's Nuggets: Here Is Last Week's (October 15-21 2012) Automotive News Incase You Were Dozing

Auto Central Louisville, KY October 21, 2012 Each week Larry Nutson, The Auto Channel's Chicago Bureau Chief, along with Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau give you easy to digest nuggets of the past week's automotive news you may have missed.

If you are a car nut like we all are, you can easily "catch up" on these stories as well as the past 16 years 1,355,435 automotive stories, articles, reviews, rants and raves by just searching for the subject you are interested in The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive. Hey South Florida TV viewers, I know you are enjoying watching The Auto Channel's TACH-TV on channel 44 WHDT-TV Palm Beach (Cable 17 and 438, channel 9 Miami and channel 32 Fort Meyers-Naples, and thanks for the positive feedback.... See you next week, LN

Automotive News October 15-21, 2012

* The odd-looking Nissan DeltaWing race car with the unbelievably narrow front track crashed in practice during its first North American race, Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta. The crash had nothing to do with the car's design, rather it was clipped by an errant Porsche. DeltaWing represents perhaps the most dramatic change is race car design in modern history. It was back on the track one day later with major repairs completed. We'll look forward to seeing how it does in the race.

* Gibbs Sports Amphibians revealed this week plans to be selling their amazing Quadski - a cross between a jet-ski and a quad runner - within just a few months. They invited a select bunch of journalists to give it a try and we, here at TheAutoChannel, were among the first to give it a go. (See the stories earlier this week.) Expected to cost close to 40-grand it features a retractable suspension system that allows it to easily do 45-mph on both land and in the water.

* Confirmation came this week that we'll see the next generation C-7 Corvette at the January North American International Auto Show. We also saw the new Corvette badge/logo that is much more modern, sleek and lean. GM also announced that the Corvette factory in Bowling Green, KY will close for six months to retool for the new car, implying that major changes will be part of the new sports car.

* Other news at GM revealed the plans in place to produce the Cadillac version of the controversial Chevy Volt extended-range electric car. Called the Cadillac ELRt, it will be built in the Detroit Hamtramck plant starting in late 2013. Volt already has Holden and Opel variants.

* In more evidence that we may not be quite ready for electric cars yet, the government subsidized battery maker, A123 Systems, is going belly up. That doesn't mean they'll quit making the lithium-ion batteries in all probability since they're making a deal for "debtor in possession" financing from Johnson Controls which gives the latter, who produce electric car batteries at other locations, the advantage in acquiring A123 in a controlled bankruptcy. A123 supplies batteries to Fisker and GM, among others.

* The all-new, second-generation Mercedes-Benz GL-Class sport utility has won the 2013 Motor Trend Sport/Utility of the Year® award. The full article, citing the GL as “the best the luxury SUV class has ever seen,�?? will be published in the December issue of Motor Trend. This marks the second time the GL has won the prestigious Motor Trend award.

* The Auto Channel recently visited the Paris Auto Show to bring you the latest in global automotive product news. The Paris show has the highest attendance of any in the world this year clocking up 1,231,416 visitors before closing its gates. The show enjoyed bumper media coverage all over the world, with over 12,000 journalists from 113 countries, over 100 hours of TV and radio reports in France and over 8,000,000 hits on the show website. The Paris Motor Show becomes the first Auto Show on Facebook with more than 26,000 fans ahead Frankfurt, Detroit, Geneva and all others. Plan your travels. The dates of the next Paris Motor Show: Saturday, October 4 to Sunday, October 19, 2014.

* Ford is recalling 155,000 Fiesta subcompact models from the 2011-2013 model years for an issue with the side-curtain air bag on the passenger side.

*Stanford Ovshinsky, an inventor and founder of Energy Conversion Devices Inc. who dedicated his life to finding alternative forms of energy, died at age 89 Wednesday of cancer at his home in Bloomfield Hills, MI, a suburb of Detroit. His inventions are used in a wide variety of electronics, and gasoline-electric hybrids, including the Toyota Prius.