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24 Hours of Le Mans an on-and-off love affair

There was little usual about this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans - intermittent rain in the weeks before the race meant cars didn't get on track as much as they wanted, and intermittent rain during the race meant cars went off track a lot more than they wanted. The race started with a wet track, and one of the records broken because of the random downpours was the number of times the safety car led the field - 11 times this year - although the record of two hours and 53 minutes of lapping behind the safety car, set in 2011, was not eclipsed.
None of that served to dampen the action. With little more than an hour left in the race there were cars still only a few seconds apart fighting for position, leads still changing because of pit stops and everyone drafting anyone they could.
Things didn't go the usual way up front, either - well, not exactly...

Audi goes out of this world to sell R8 at the Super Bowl

Audi lets the new R8 V10 Plus blast off in the German brand's space-themed Super Bowl ad titled The Commander. The touching commercial puts a forlorn, retired astronaut behind the supercar's wheel, and he gets to relive the experience of leaving the bonds of Earth. Plus, David Bowie's Starman is the perfect choice for the score. Audi's ad makes the clever decision to link the supercar's rapid acceleration to a rocket launch in in viewers' minds. The spot also resonates emotionally because the retired astronaut only experiences the R8's performance because his son is worried about him. While not as humorous, we think the new spot does a better job of selling the R8's capabilities than the company's famous The Godfather Super Bowl commercial. The 60-second version of The Commander (above) will air during the game's first quarter. You can watch a 90-second cut below to enjoy a little more of the R8 and Bowie. SHOOTING FOR THE MOON, AUDI DEBUTS BIG GAME SPOT CALLED THE COMMANDER 60-second spot to air in first quarter of the big game Feb. 7 "The Commander" to feature the next-generation Audi R8, arriving in U.S. showrooms in Spring 2016 2016 marks return and eighth year for the brand as a big-game advertiser February 03, 2016 - HERNDON, Virginia -- Audi of America returns to the biggest night in football with a 60-second commercial titled "The Commander." A 90-second extended version of the spot is now live on the Audi YouTube channel. Featuring the all-new Audi R8 V10 plus, "The Commander" will air on Sunday, Feb. 7 during the first quarter of the Big Game. San Francisco-based Venables Bell & Partners created the commercial. "The Commander" tells the story of a retired astronaut who rediscovers his lust for life. Viewers watch as the man, surrounded by memories of the golden age of space exploration, sits solemnly, deep in reflection. When his son hands over the keys to a new Audi R8 V10 plus, he gets behind the wheel and relives the thrill of a rocket-like ride under the stars. Viewers watch as newfound life stirs within the Commander. Audi reminds us that amazing things happen when we shoot for the moon. The 2017 R8 is the fastest and most powerful Audi of all time. In its second generation, the all-new Audi R8 V10 plus has a top speed of 205 mph with a 3.2-second 0-60 mph time for "rocket-like" performance.

Highlights from the Goodwood Festival of Speed, including the McLaren P1 and a Ford Transit running the hill

The sole purpose of this post is as a time-waster, and since you shouldn't have to work to waste time, we've done it for you. In the numerous videos below you'll find cars that have lately been in the news tramping all over the grounds of Lord March's estate in Goodwood, England.
There's the McLaren P1 heading up the hill, the Jaguar Project 7, then a casually-driven Porsche 917 followed by an even-more-casually-driven Porsche 956, topped off by a Porsche 936 that is anything but casually driven. The next round is the flame-spitting Peugeot 405 T16 Pikes Peak from Climb Dance, a camera mounted on the Peugeot RCZ R after it showing you what the whole, uninterrupted run up the hill looks like. For a real head-turner, we couldn't embed it but there's Andy Reid blasting up the hill in a Ford Transit Supervan with a Cosworth 3000 V6 engine.
The modern racing contingent has Allan McNish doing the hill in the Audi R18 e-tron quattro he used to win Le Mans and Lewis Hamilton making lots of tire smoke in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas MGP-W02. For comparison, that's followed by Nick Heidfeld's record-setting run up the hill in 1999 in the McLaren MP4/14 . The classic racing contingent is headlined by 71-year-old Giacomo Agostini on an MV Agusta.