Odd Design Inspirations - Part 1

Personally, I find many automotive designs to be simply...well...baffling. So with continued bewilderment (at both designer genius and stupidity), I shall now begin a series of posts dedicated to exploring some of the more unexpected inspirations behind automotive design...

Case #1: If I were to design a new supercar and wanted to model it after an animal, I think I would choose something like a cheetah, a road runner, a greyhound, a thoroughbred racing horse...you get the idea. Audi instead decided that the animal most symbolic of pure unadulterated speed and supercar intimidation was a penguin:

And yet, I must admit that this one worked...who knew penguins could be so sexy? Apparently someone at Audi has been spending a little too much time watching those boring but visually seductive "nature in HD" shows.