2006 Audi A6 Premium Sport Quattro Awd - White On Black - Very Low Mileage on 2040-cars

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Ten of the greatest Super Bowl car commercials of all time

With an average of over 100 million viewers each year, the Super Bowl always has advertisers bringing out the big guns. And for those among us who don't know the difference between a safety and a touchback, those commercials can be one of the most compelling aspects of the annual ritual. Car companies, in particular, have a long history of making the most of the huge Super Bowl audience by debuting some of the most memorable advertisements that have ever aired on television. So, in preparation for the new batch we'll be seeing this coming Sunday, here's a collection of our favorites from the past. 10. Audi – The Godfather When Audi created this homage to the quintessential gangster movie to promote its newest sports car, the company managed to make a commercial that was simultaneously funny, a little bit disturbing, and most importantly memorable. 9. Maserati – Strike This one might start out slow, but it delivers not only with the wicked sound of the third-generation Ghibli's engine, but with an interesting message about hubris in the auto industry as well. 8. Nissan 300ZX Twin-Turbo – Dream Directed by none other than Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Alien), this dystopian spot has centers around a narrator who explains that in his dream the bad guys are unable to catch him despite their best efforts by way of street bikes, race cars, and supersonic jets. While the twin-turbocharged 300ZX car was certainly a performance powerhouse to be reckoned with in its day, the concept and execution of this one does come off a little bit campy now – but in a good way. Then again, it is a dream, after all. 7. General Motors – Robot This one is unique in that it's genuinely depressing on a profound level. Who would've thought that the simulated suicide of a lovable, anthropomorphic car-building robot who has fallen on hard times could be such a downer? 6. Nissan – With Dad Although the debut season of its new LMP1 racer didn't exactly turn out how the team hoped it would, there's no denying that Nissan's depiction of a strained father-and-son relationship that eventually leads to redemption (and the introduction of the 2016 Maxima) tugs at the heartstrings. 5. Volkswagen – Big Day A surprisingly poignant advert, this one might be low on dialogue but it certainly gets its message across. And just as the dramatic soundtrack begins to lull the viewer into a sense of security, our expectations are upended. 4.

Autoblog's adventures at the Nurburgring 24-Hour race [spoilers]

The brand-new Audi R8 LMS, said to share 50 percent of its components with the street-legal R8 shown off at Geneva, has won its very first race at the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours. The No. 28 car driven by Christopher Mies, Edward Sandstrom, Nico Muller, and Laurens Vanthoor for the Audi Sport WRT team out of Belgium finished only 40.279 seconds ahead of the No. 25 BMW Sport Team Marc VDS Z4 GT3 in second place, for the smallest winning gap since the race began in 1970. Those two cars traded the lead throughout Sunday morning and were less than a minute away from one another for the last two hours. They were part of a total 35 lead changes during the entire race – a record for the event – and both did 156 laps. Third place went to the No. 44 Falken Tire Porsche 997 GT3, one lap down. The Audis did what they always do: lurked close to the front, stayed out of trouble, then pounced when everyone else faltered. For the opening stretches the BMW Z4 teams owned it, running 1-2-3 for a while, but all of them hit trouble. When morning came and the race got over its yellow-flag fever, the No. 28 Audi was in front and stayed there. It was the third Nurburgring 24-Hour win for Audi in four years, the brand's first win only coming in 2012. Last year's winner, the Phoenix Audi team that set a race record by doing 159 laps, had both of its cars retire. One hit an oil patch about 12 hours in, spun and was hit by another car behind, taking on too much damage to continue. The other retired with engine issues. Other Notes Three cars crashed out of the race while leading, after the rains that weren't supposed to happen, happened about 90 minutes in. The No. 20 Schubert BMW Z4 led the first 50 minutes of the race, hopped a crest at Pflanzgarten, landed in a pool of water, and hit the wall on the 30th lap. Then the No. 30 Frikadelli Porsche, with a driver team that included ex-'Ring Taxi driver Sabine Schmitz, hit the No. 31 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 on the approach to Carrousel and crashed out. Then the No. 1 Phoenix Audi, last year's winning car, took the lead but hit the wall after that oil patch near Pflanzgarten and was out of the race. Aston Martin celebrated a class win in the SP8 category with the No. 49 Vantage GT4 N430. This being the tenth anniversary of the Vantage running the Nurburgring-24, this year's car was painted in the same colors as the racecar from ten years ago.

2015 Audi A3 TDI Challenge

I officially gave up after 758 miles. The 15 or so miles leading up to this decision were spent in the right lane of Southern California's I-8 freeway, hazard lights blinking, climbing uphill at just over 40 miles per hour. After two days of sweating to the oldies (okay, a mix of SiriusXM Classic Rewind and First Wave), I had covered those 758 miles in a 2015 Audi A3 TDI on one tank of diesel fuel. And when I say sweating, I mean it quite literally. In order to maximize fuel efficiency, my co-driver and I kept the air conditioning off, even when the direct sunlight in the California desert had outside temperatures hovering around 90 degrees. I had been doing this hypermiling exercise for two days, the car was getting stinky, and I was ready to hear the sweet "thhhhhhhwack" of satisfaction that would finally come from peeling my sweat-soaked self off the A3's leather seat. Sexy, I know.
Audi had challenged me to drive 834 miles from Albuquerque, NM to San Diego, CA, on just one 13.2-gallon tank of diesel fuel. If you believe the EPA's highway fuel economy rating of 43 miles per gallon, this means I should have sputtered to a stop after 568 miles. But I went a grand total of 758 - that's 59.4 mpg - and I could have kept going. In fact, two teams made it the full 834 miles on their one allotted tank of fuel. That's over 63 mpg. That's twenty miles per gallon better than EPA estimates.
The TDI Challenge took me through three states over the course of two days, and the 834-mile journey wasn't just a simple highway cruise. I negotiated uphill climbs, long series of involving switchbacks through the mountains and elevations that ranged from 220 feet below sea level to nearly 8,000 feet above. I learned that super-crazy-efficient driving like this an incredibly challenging game that takes serious skill. But I also learned that if you're going to attempt to stomp all over the EPA's numbers, the Audi A3 TDI is one heck of a car for the journey.