2007 Audi A4 Quattro Base Sedan 4-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Audi + Airbnb: What it's like to live in a car commercial

Miles from civilization, in a lonely stretch of Death Valley, lies an unlikely sight: a sleek contemporary home – all glass, concrete, and metal – and a pair of equally modern 2017 Audi R8 V10 Plus coupes. You might have seen the combo in a TV commercial that ran during the Emmys, a spot that had us asking an obvious question: What are these objects doing together, smack in the middle of nowhere? Audi partnered with Airbnb to offer the home and the cars to seven guests. Somehow, we became lucky number eight. The spot, entitled "Desolation," promotes the carmaker's flagship alongside what ended up being an extreme rental property. The idea to build the three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot house came from Italian writer and author Fabrizio Rondolino, who was long smitten with American desert. The home was built in 2010 using prefabricated construction by San Francisco-based architecture firm nottoscale. It's a spare elevated structure, with floor-to-ceiling windows cinematically framing the sky. To set the four-wheeled mood, images of the R8 sit where family photos would go, and a laser-cut aluminum sign over the entrance announces it as the "Home of the R8." In acknowledgement of the remoteness, a satellite phone sits charged up with clearly printed dialing instructions. An Easter egg from the ad – two jars of Leadfoot Coffee – hides in plain sight on the kitchen counter. You can rent houses like this elsewhere on Airbnb, but here's where gearheads start paying attention: The two Audi supercars counter the architectural tranquility with a combined 1,220 horsepower and an opportunity to rip through the desert at obscene speeds (not to mention several other extras you don't get with a standard vacation rental; more on that later). Seven three-day/two-night stays were offered through an extremely limited Airbnb listing. The buzz surrounding the campaign was so strong that the place booked up in less than six seconds. For what you get, this was a steal. The per-night price of $610 – a reference to the V10's horsepower figure – wouldn't begin to cover the behind-the-scenes logistics needed to coordinate and execute this marketing exercise. I was the sole member of the media invited to experience the Audi Airbnb and got to spend a weekend in this desert playground to see what it was all about. My weekend began when an Audi rep met me and my family at Las Vegas International Airport following a quick flight from Burbank, California.

Audi TT RS shows its meaner face in new spy shots

When it launched, the original Audi TT RS was considered quite a sharp combination, melding a 360-horsepower turbocharged engine and all-wheel drive into a rather lithe, little coupe. Audi is ready to revive that great idea and is preparing for a return on the automaker's latest platform. Thanks to these new spy shots from near the Nurburgring, we can at least get a good idea aesthetically of what's in store for this future member of the RS family. There's absolutely nothing subtle about the front end, and the camouflage does little to hide the larger intakes at each corner. In profile, you can also spot larger brake discs peeking out from behind the wheels, and the side sills appear slightly thicker than the current TTS. The rear is all business, as well, with a lower apron and two big oval exhausts. The new TT RS reportedly arrives in 2016, at least in Europe, and a debut is possible at the Geneva Motor Show in March. The coupe would then potentially come to the US later in the calendar for the 2017 model year. Unlike the last TT here, which got a manual transmission, rumors suggest that the latest one would only offer a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. There's not likely to be any disappointment about the power, though, because it supposedly grows to about 400 hp thanks to an upgraded 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder. Related Video:

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.