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A few pre-race notes and a lot of photos from the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 82nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is on.
Audi has won 12 of the last 15 events, the scion of Auto Union is trying to make it 13 this year. To do so, it will have to overcome a situation faced only three other times during its dominance of La Sarthe: underdog status. Toyota has won the first two races of the year and claimed pole for this race, the rumor being that this year it's Toyota's race to lose.
And then there's Porsche. It's been 16 years since the Stuttgart brand raced on the top rung at Le Mans, three years years since it announced its return, just a year since it acquired Mark Webber in a signing that wasn't subtle and a few months since we got eyes on the 919 Hybrid.

Junkyard Gem: 1987 Audi 5000

The third-generation Audi 100 introduced for the 1983 model year was sold as the Audi 5000 in the United States. Sales of this high-end German sedan went pretty well ... until 60 Minutes ran a piece called "Out of Control" in late 1986, convincing many viewers that the 5000 was murderously defective. Yes, it was the original Unintended Acceleration debacle, decades before the one that cost Toyota big yen, and it slaughtered American Audi sales. Today's Junkyard Gem had the misfortune to be sitting in an Audi showroom while the echoes of the argle-bargle over the 5000 controversy still reverberated, its price dropping while potential buyers headed into the arms of nearby Mercedes-Benz and BMW dealers. Still, someone bought this car, which would have been a great Colorado winter machine with its 5-speed and Quattro all-wheel-drive system, and it ended up racking up more miles than 98 percent of cars sold in 1987. The presence of an ignition key in a junkyard car usually indicates that it was a trade-in or insurance total. A high-mile, 29-year-old Audi isn't worth much at auction, so this one ended up here. All the automatic-equipped 5000s got scary warning stickers on the shifters, among other recall-mandated changes, and Audi ended up using the European-market 100 name on these cars starting in the 1989 model year . Related Video: Featured Gallery Junked 1987 Audi 5000 Quattro View 18 Photos Auto News Audi unintended acceleration

Recharge Wrap-up: Nissan "religious" about zero-emissions, Tesla crashes at dealership, Formula E on-board video

Nissan is pretty darn serious about being king of the EV industry. Just see what Chief Planning Officer Andy Palmer has to say at the launch of the e-NV200: "When it comes to zero emissions, we're absolutely religious. We'll be the absolute, No. 1 leader in zero emissions. No doubt. That's our positioning." Bold words, to be sure. Toyota, on the other hand, ended its collaboration with Tesla (whom Nissan mustn't forget about in its quest to reign supreme in the EV world) to build the RAV4 EV, and will focus instead on hybrids and testing the waters with hydrogen cars. Says Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America, "I would rather invest my dollars in fuel cell development than in another 2,500 EVs." Read more at Automotive News or Autoweek. To celebrate 25 years of TDI technology, Audi is releasing the A7 Sportback 3.0 TDI Competition special edition in Europe. The Competition uses Audi's biturbocharged, 3.0-liter diesel engine boosted to 326 horsepower, giving the car a 0-62 time of 5.1 seconds. It comes with the S line sport package and is offered in four exterior colors: Daytona Gray, Misano Red, Nardo Gray and Sepang Blue. The interior is black leather, with the option of Misano Red or Agate Gray contrast stitching. The Competition edition will go on sale in August starting at ˆ72,000 (about $97,700). Audi's first Turbocharged Direct Injection engine debuted at the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show in the Audi 100 2.5 TDI. See the press release down below for more details. There was another Tesla Model S crash recently, this one at the Tesla Store. The driver apparently crashed the freshly purchased car into the Tesla sign before even making it off the lot. According to Reddit user s1lentway, who was at the Tesla Store in Fremont, California when it happened, "We believe this is someone who just got their car. They must have been driving it for less than a minute and lost control, crashing right into the sign missing the showroom glass windows only by a few inches." Wrecked Exotics suggests the driver hit the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. Probably the best comment in the Reddit post: "Edison strikes again." See the original post at Reddit for more corny jokes, speculation and similar stories from other users. Take a lap in a Formula E racecar. The video below offers up the sights and sounds of a hot, wet lap in the open-cockpit, all-electric Spark-Renault SRT_01E.