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Audi revising own history in light of 'shocking' study of Nazi-era activities

Daimler opened up its archives for research into its Nazi affiliations for one book published in 1990 and another in 1998. The Quandt family behind BMW had its public catharsis in 2007. The ties between the National Socialists and the Porsche and Piech families have almost rendered the Volkswagen Beetle some kind of cult tchotchke of the Third Reich. And it's not just automakers called in for cleansing: Deutsche Bank credit helped build Auschwitz, Hugo Boss made Nazi uniforms, patriarch of food and frozen pizza giant Dr. Oetker volunteered for the Waffen-SS. As one historian said, for any business that wanted to stay in business during the war, "no company was really clean. Everyone had to resort to slave labor when their own workers were fighting at the front."
Audi is the latest to go public with findings from an in-depth study of the Nazi-affiliated past of Auto Union, its predecessor company, and the "Father of Auto Union" Dr. Richard Bruhn, the man who headed it pre- and post-war. Commissioned by Audi, written by Audi's history department head Martin Kukowski and University of Chemnitz historian Rudolf Boch, its findings are just as severe as those already heard so often over the past 20 years. Among other discoveries, the study found that not only did Brun manage the use of more than 3,700 forced labor camp workers from seven SS-run camps, 16,500 forced laborers that didn't live in camps worked in two more factories; Bruhn wanted even more laborers but couldn't get them because of the battlefield situation; and that Auto Union had "moral responsibility" for roughly 4,500 workers killed at the Flossenbürg concentration camp. The study found that disabled workers were routinely sent to the camp and executed there.
Audi works council head Peter Mosch said, "I'm very shocked by the scale of the involvement of the former Auto Union leadership in the system of forced and slave labor. I was not aware of the extent." The company is figuring out how it will respond to the findings, so far working on changing the online profile of Dr. Bruhn on its history pages on Audi sites around the world, and considering stripping Brun's name from the street that bears it and from company offerings like pension plans. If you can read German or can work Google Translate, Wirtschaftswoche has a long piece on the study and its conclusions.

Stay in the house from the Audi R8 Emmy ad

Audi is sponsoring the Emmys again, and launching an ad alongside the awards show that features a family living in the middle of the desert simply to have an excuse to drive their R8s as much, and as fast, as possible. Which is crazy. Even crazier, you can live in the exact house from the ad for a few days as part of an airbnb promotion. The stay includes chauffeured transportation from Las Vegas McCarran airport, all meals prepared by a personal chef, and an R8 V10 Plus in the driveway available for driving. Did we mention it's a real house and not just an advertising prop? It is. The 1,200 square foot Rondolino Residence sits on 80 acres near Scotty's Junction, Nevada, just over 2 hours northwest of Las Vegas. Beginning September 18, seven three-night stays in October will become available - one booking opens up each day at 9 PM Eastern. The rate is listed at $610 per night, with the bookings running October 10th through November 1st. You can book the experience, or try, on the airbnb page. As for the ad, titled "Desolation," at first it seems like a entertaining jaunt about the lengths people will go to for an amazing driving experience. A deeper (and totally unreasonable - it's just an ad) analysis suggests some truly troubling things going on. For starters, the lackadaisical parents let the children taunt a poisonous scorpion. Will the isolated upbringing and history of cruelty towards animals produce a future serial killer? In our deranged version of this fictional universe, yes. Second, the R8 - spoiler alert, both R8s - get super dirty on the run to the corner store. A corner store, which, seemingly unequipped for coffee roasting nevertheless has fresh artisanal beans sold in half-pound bags. Lacking a bulk purchase option, the plot of the ad surely repeats itself several times a week. That sounds insane, but hey, it's all about the drive. And we do love the "Leadfoot Coffee" easter egg. But we digress. Where is the car wash that left the R8 clean before the drive through the desert? And where is the second R8 parked? The male protagonist clearly drives out of the garage from a position that doesn't leave room for the second car. We can only surmise that there is a underground component to the house in the ad. To be clear, we're still in fictional universe of this ad - the real Rondolino Residence, like the Alamo, lacks a basement.

Race Recap: 2013 Twelve Hours of Sebring, cakewalk up front, grindfest out back [w/spoilers]

This year's 12 Hours of Sebring wasn't exactly a foregone conclusion because we're still talking about racing, and anything can happen when the speeds are as high as the adrenaline and the desire. But we're still talking about Audi bringing it's two top-spec racers - and its huge budget and its nearly neurotic attention to detail - to a race that it uses as a test bed for The 24 Hours of Le Mans and as a way to open the endurance racing season with a victory.
Besides, 12 hours is a long time, especially at Sebring, and things didn't go all Audi's way. On top of that, although it was a pretty quiet race, behind the Audis things got even grimier, with plenty of battles, plenty of mechanical issues, and the new BMW Z4 GTE and Viper GTS-R being race tested. Oh, and that brand new chromed-out DeltaWing...