– The concept Dodge Magnum SRT-8, a sedan/sport-utility crossover earmarked for production for the ’04 model year, crashed, killing the driver on the return trip to Detroit from the Los Angeles Auto Show, where it made its public debut. A backup Magnum concept was used at the Detroit Auto Show and will appear at the Chicago Auto Show.
– Hyundai Motor Co. plans to build a $50 million automotive proving ground in California City, Calif., to test vehicles from Hyundai and Kia. Groundbreaking on the 4,300-acre facility in the Mojave Desert will take place this year. The project is scheduled for completion in 2004. It will feature a 6.4-mile oval track, a vehicle-handling course, a paved hill road and several special surface roads. A 30,000-square-foot complex for offices and indoor testing also will be built.
– Toyota has added a production line for the Sienna minivan at its Princeton, Ind., factory, which makes the Tundra pickup and Sequoia sport-utility vehicle. Sienna had been made in Toyota’s Georgetown, Ky., plant. The move allows Georgetown to add the Solara to its production of Camry and Avalon sedans.
– After years of studies and debate, Gov. Frank O’Bannon has announced plans to build a 140-mile extension of Interstate Highway 69 through southwestern Indiana that will allow the “NAFTA Superhighway” to go beyond Indianapolis, where the last leg of I-69 was completed more than two decades ago. The highway would go through Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
– A vacant building where Henry Ford’s car company once manufactured Model T’s will get new life as home to an architectural design company. Fisher Design has signed a lease to occupy the top level of the windowless building along Interstate Highway 71. Ford opened the factory in 1915 as one of 25 assembly plants outside the Detroit area. It remained an auto plant until 1932.
