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Ferdinand Piech (1937-2019): The man who made VW global

Towering among his peers, a giant of the auto industry died Sunday night in Rosenheim/Upper Bavaria, Germany. Ferdinand Piech, a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who conceived the original Volkswagen in the 1930s, was the most polarizing automotive executive of our times. And one who brought automotive technology further than anyone else. Ferdinand Porsche had a son, Ferdinand (called "Ferry"), and a daughter, Louise, who married the Viennese lawyer Anton Piech. They gave birth to Ferdinand Piech, and his proximity to two Alfa Romeo sports cars — Porsche had done some work for the Italians — and the "Berlin-Rome-Berlin" race car, developed by Porsche himself, gave birth to Piech's interest in cars. After his teachers in Salzburg told his mother he was "too stupid" to attend school there, Piech, who was open about his dyslexia, was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland. He subsequently moved on to Porsche, where he fixed issues with the 904 race car and did major work on the 911. But his greatest project was the Le Mans-winning 917 race car, developed at breathtaking financial cost. It annihilated the competition, but the family had had enough: Amid growing tension among the four cousins working at Porsche and Piech's uncle Ferry, the family decided to pull every family member, except for Ferry, out of their management positions. Piech started his own consultancy business, where he designed the famous five-cylinder diesel for Mercedes-Benz, but quickly moved on to Audi, first as an engineer and then as CEO, where he set out to transform the dull brand into a technology leader. Piech killed the Wankel engine and hammered out a number of ambitious and sophisticated technologies. Among them: The five-cylinder gasoline engine; Quattro all-wheel drive and Audi's fantastic rally successes; and turbocharging, developed with Fritz Indra, whom Piech recruited from Alpina. The Audi 100/200/5000 became the world's fastest production sedan, thanks to their superior aerodynamics. Piech also launched zinc-coated bodies for longevity — and gave diesel technology a decisive boost with the advent of the fast and ultra-efficient TDI engines. Less known: Piech also decided to put larger gas tanks into cars. Customers loved it. Piech's first-generation Audi V8 was met with derision by competitors; it was too obviously based on the 200/5000.

Automakers score 8 out of top 20 most-watched ads on YouTube [w/videos]

Who would have ever thought there'd be a day where people are able to skip television commercials only to go to websites to watch them later? Such is the joy of a DVR and YouTube. AdWeek tabulated the 20 most-watched ads on YouTube, and found that nine were car-related including eight coming from automakers.
Volkswagen continued its Star Wars theme with two ads in the top 20, including the highest-ranking car commercial The Bark Side spot at number three with almost 18 million views, which doesn't even have a single car in it. Some of our favorites are from Chrysler with Clint Eastwood in It's Halftime in America and House Arrest with Charlie Sheen for the Fiat 500 Abarth. Chevrolet, Honda, Audi and Toyota were the other automakers in the top 20, but we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention one of the coolest ads on the list, the Hot Wheels corkscrew jump.
Of all the car videos, only the Fiat ad wasn't played during a Super Bowl. Check out all eight videos - in order - after the jump. Nike took the top spot with its My Time is Now ad that has been seen online more than 20 million times with Pepsi's Uncle Drew posted up in the runner-up; some of the other videos include four Old Spice commercials and an ad in which Snoop Dogg is pedaling Hot Pockets.

Audi pins hopes on 2016 R18 Le Mans prototype

Down but not out, Audi is carrying forward its endurance racing program with the new R18 you see here. Unveiled on Saturday at the Audi Sport Finale end-of-season event in Munich, the new LMP1 is billed as the company's its most powerful and efficient race car yet. And it has been thoroughly redesigned to bring the Four Ring brand back to the winner's circle. Though technical details remain a closely guarded secret, Audi says that the latest evolution of the R18 (now apparently labeled sans the E-Tron Quattro) benefits from revised aero, lightweight construction, and "a modified hybrid system with lithium-ion batteries for energy storage, plus an efficiency-optimized TDI engine." That spells the end of the mechanical fly-wheel setup of the previous version, but sticks to the diesel fuel that Audi has championed instead of the gasoline favored by rivals Porsche and Toyota. With all its revisions, Ingolstadt undoubtedly hopes this latest version will perform better than the last. This past season was the worst Audi has endured since 2009. Its sister company Porsche beat it to both the drivers' and manufacturers' titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship and to the winner's circle at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That marked the second straight year of defeat in the championship, following Toyota's domination last season, and marked only the third time Audi was defeated at Le Mans since 2000, following Bentley's win in '03 and Peugeot's in '09. In order to avoid costly inter-agency arms race, Audi and Porsche have agreed to each field two entries instead of three in both the championship and the headline race in Western France. Audi has yet to confirm its driver lineup, but Porsche has revealed its lineup consisting of defending champions Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, and Mark Webber in one car, and Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, and Marc Lieb in the other. That leaves out the Le Mans-winning trio of Nico Hulkenberg, Nick Tandy, and Earl Bamber, with the former already counted out due to an F1 conflict. More powerful and efficient than ever before: Audi R18 celebrates world premiere in Munich - New hybrid race car for the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours - Unchanged driver line-up in the DTM - High demand for new Audi R8 LMS GT3 sports car The brand with the four rings will be entering the 2016 motorsport season with the most powerful and efficient race car Audi has ever built.