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1961 Ford Gyron concept scale model sells for $40,000

A scale model of the 1961 Ford Gyron concept has sold at auction for $40,000, around four times its estimate. The space-age concept car – designed by Alex Tremulis, McKinley Thompson, Syd Mead, Bill Dayton, John Najjar, and Elwood Engel – debuted in 1961 at the New York International Auto Show and featured two wheels mounted along the car's centerline, usung a gyroscope for stability. The full-size model – which relied on stabilizing wheels instead of a gyroscope – also predicted the development of satellite navigation systems, car phones and infrared sensing.

Who's Where: Wulin Gaowa appointed design director of GM China Advanced Design

Wulin Gaowa has been appointed to fill a newly-created role as GM China Advanced Design's first Design Director. She will start her new role with immediate effect. Gaowa, who was most recently the Advanced Design Director of Exterior Design and Interior at the Beijing Automotive Technology Center, will be based at GM China's Advanced Technical Center in Shanghai, due to open later this month.

Alan Mulally joins ‘Innovation power panel’ Keynote at CES

An ‘Innovation Power Panel' Keynote was the highlight of the second full morning of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Underlining the importance of this event to the automotive industry, and the importance and weight the automotive field now carries in the consumer electronics sphere, Alan Mulally – President and CEO of Ford motor company – was part of a three-person panel exploring how companies innovate, cope with failure and the relentless pace of change in the electronics world. Mulally was joined by Ursula Burns, Chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation and John Stratto, Enterprise Executive at Verizon, the US telecoms company.