Time for tea? Honda certainly thinks so.. (w/VIDEO)

One of the most popular enthusiast car videos of the last 9 months is Audi’s remarkable symphony of the R8 V10 plus – stripped naked at the rear, with nothing but a microphone between the listener and 550 of Audi’s finest horses. It’s brilliant.

Thus far, it’s racked up 1.5 million views on YouTube with an impressive 140,793 social shares since it was first released in February this year. That’s a social yield of 9.4%, which would have positioned it second in our Top 10 Super Bowl 47 Car Ads.

VIEW: The new Audi R8 V10 plus (VIDEO).

But it’s not the most popular enthusiast video, by that I mean one which gratuitously feeds our appetite for thrills. For that we must look towards Ferrari, whose official launch video of the LaFerrari hypercar has clocked up 4.4 million views and 381,986 social shares since it was released in March – resulting in a slightly lower yield of 8.7%.

VIEW: LaFerrari – official launch video (VIDEO).

Against such opposition you’d imagine other car makers would raise the ‘white flag’, pack away their crayons and put the kettle on.. which is remarkably close to the truth.

Step forward Honda, who at first glance looks like they’re trying to emulate Audi, but being the clever car company they are have decided to appeal cerebrally as well as showing a glimpse of their ‘white’ NSX (in Concept GT form).

In the space of two weeks it’s already clocked up more than 313,000 views on YouTube, but only a handful of social shares — for now.

Honda’s goal with the ad was to demonstrate the ‘smart’ use of energy, specifically its Home Smart Home System (HSHS) — seriously, I’m not joking.

Even so, smart energy is part of Honda’s 2020 global environmental vision of “creating products that maximize the joy of customers with speed, affordability and low CO2,” so there’s a car-guy message in their too.

While producing a little short of the R8 V10’s 542bhp, the NSX will still harness at least 400bhp from its mid-mounted, direct-injected V6 engine mated to a Sport Hybrid SH-AWD (Super Handling All-Wheel Drive) system.

Rather than wasting the power generated on the rolling road, they channel the energy from its hybrid powertrain into boiling a kettle or two.. in fact we count 29 kettles in total, all merrily boiling away ready for a brew-up.

Clever eh?

Reality check..

Sometimes a reality-check is on order, lest we get carried away thinking the rest of the world revolves around our interest in Ferrari’s, V10 Audis and Honda supercars.

The most popular car video of the past month, has nothing to do with performance, nor does it send a chill up our spine with its aural appeal.

Instead it’s a Mercedes-Benz advert for the company’s Intelligent Drive Magic Body Control, the system which ensures optimum driving comfort. Since it was launched ‘three weeks’ ago it’s racked up 5.3 million views, 476,293 social shares and delivered a yield of 9.0%. Boom!

And it features Chickens.. Go figure.

Data provided courtesy of Unruly Media’s Viral Video Chart. Accurate as of 11th October, 2013.