Flash.(Briefs)

Nissan and beyond?

Take a spin through autoweek.com on Oct. 7 and you'll see a sketch of the 2007 Skyline GT-R, the next-generation super-sports car Nissan will unveil at the upcoming Tokyo motor show. What you won't see is which brand the car will be sold under in the United States, Nissan or its upmarket marque Infiniti.

"It probably won't be announced even at Tokyo,'' says Nissan Design America vice president Bruce Campbell. "It's still being debated internally, with lots of good reasons both ways.''

Performance mods

The executive who has toiled since 2001 to make General Motors' Performance Division a reality has a new job. Mark Reuss took over Oct. 1 as executive director of North America Vehicle Systems, where he is responsible for engineering all body and chassis systems. The new name at Performance Division is Bob Kruse, who adds the hot rod shop to his responsibilities as executive director of North America Vehicle Integration. GM officials say it's an organizational "cleanup.''

Building better bots

This year's robots look more competent than last year's models, and one of them might actually win that $2 million prize in the DARPA Grand Challenge planned for Oct. 8 in the desert near Primm, Nevada. The Grand Challenge (DARPA ...