A few months ago I had the pleasure of sitting next to the U.S. brand manager for Audi’s motorsports program on an overnight flight to Munich. He was off to lead a team of American journalists on a tour through the mountains near Ingolstadt in the new R8 GT. I, on the other hand, was headed to Lyon, France to gain an entirely new understanding of how the World Health Organization pontificates and promotes specific agendas, but that is a topic for a different blog. I think it goes without saying that I’d have rather gone with him. During the almost nine hours we spent together no sleeping, working, or watching movies, I did get the chance to pick his brains on a number of topics related to Audi and the automotive industry in general – among them one of my pet soapbox issues: the lack of new-tech diesel cars available to U.S. consumers.

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