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The pre-race and first in-race report from Le Mans

The 2013, 90th anniversary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has begun, tragedy marking the opening laps with the death of Allan Simonsen. We're at the track now as a guest of Audi and plan to stay through the evening, and even we haven't been able to find out what caused the accident - the only video is from just after the incident, and beyond the statement from ACO there's been no more news. The Aston Martin in the LM GTE Am class and its all-Danish drivers had taken pole in its class and was one of the favorites to win.
The pre-race report will come first, and even thought we can't spoil the race because we're only five hours into it at the time of writing, we'll put all of the news at the end in case you don't even want the updates.
Or you can go straight to the high-res galleries above.

2016 Porsche 911 R First Drive

Competition has forced the 911 GT3 RS to prioritize lap times over driving enjoyment. The 911 Carrera line has softened, now full of GT cars rather than the wild children of yore. Turbocharging is hitting the rear-engine Porsche en masse. All of this gave Porsche Motorsport a vacuum of emotion and purity to fill with just 991 examples of its glorious 911 R, a machine focused on putting unadulterated feel and enjoyment back into driving. Even amongst the diehard Porsche fraternity, just going faster doesn't work for everybody. They don't all want the thrill that comes from a high-downforce car running out of grip inches from a concrete wall. Not everybody loves suspensions so tied down that the slightest bump threatens the front splitter's continued existence. And many don't love turbochargers or want a computer to shift gears for them. Fortunately, just such people live, breathe, and work at Porsche Motorsport. This part of the company makes its living building Porsche's fastest machines, like the Cayman GT4 and the 911 GT3 and GT3 RS. But in an era when the bulk of Porsche's profits come from SUVs, Porsche Motorsport also sees itself as the guardian of the parent company's soul. Motorsport has enough pull that when it tells Porsche's board it needs a car like the 911 R the board listens. The quickest way to turn the 911 into a driver-connected car was to pull the weight out, and the easiest way to do that was to use the 911 GT3 RS as the basis. So it gets that car's magnesium roof, polycarbonate side and rear glass, carbon-fiber bonnet and front fenders, and lots of aluminum. The air conditioning got thrown out (you can pay to put it back in), as did the multimedia screen (ditto), the audio and navigation systems (ditto, ditto), the rear seats, and even the interior door handles. Cloth straps replace the latter so you can still get out of the car. At 3,020 pounds, the R is 110 lighter than the race-bred GT3 RS. Eschewing turbocharging in the interest of car-lover must-haves like induction noise, butterfly chirps, intuitive throttle response, and purity of sound, the 911 R simply borrowed the GT3 RS's 4.0-liter flat-six. So there's 500 horsepower of engine playing for keeps, the car ripping to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds from a standing start, hitting 124 mph in 11.6 seconds, and continuing on to 201 mph thanks to the lack of a monster, drag-inducing rear wing. The dry-sump engine revs and revs and feels like it wants to keep revving forever.

Porsche confirms four-cylinder Macan for New York

There aren't a lot of problems with the Porsche Macan. It's clean, handsome, and very, very nice to drive. But it's expensive, starting at $55,450, and thirsty, at 17 miles per gallon in the city and 23 on the highway. To improve on both of these, Porsche is adding a 2.0-liter, turbocharged, four-cylinder Macan to the lineup. The new engine moves the compact CUV downmarket on both power and price fronts. In the Macan, the 2.0-liter pumps out 252 horsepower, 273 pound-feet of torque, and compared to old base model, cuts the curb weight from 4,112 pounds to 3,902 pounds. Combined with a seven-speed PDK and a standard all-wheel-drive system, the new base level CUV will hit 60 miles per hour in just 6.1 seconds. You still have to suspend logic when buying a Macan, though. At just 20 mpg in the city and 25 mpg on the highway, it's scarcely more efficient than the 340-hp S model. Admittedly, the Macan's competitors all eke out substantially better fuel economy, but each of these vehicles does so with less power than Porsche's new base Macan – the BMW X3 has 240 ponies, the Mercedes GLC has 241, and the Audi Q5 just 220. But they also do it for a lot less money. The new Macan starts at $48,550, including a $1,050 destination charge. That's $6,900 less than the Macan S, but it's still around $7,000 more than the all-wheel-drive versions of the aforementioned cars. And yes, that chasm is almost certainly going to widen after digging into Porsche's options catalog. Still, this is an intelligent and overdue move for Porsche here in the US (the four-pot Macan has been on sale in Europe for years). It opens up the Macan to a far wider swath of customers, not unlike what the V6 model does for the Cayenne. Look for more on Stuttgart's new entry level CUV in a few weeks, when it makes its big debut in the Big Apple. Related Video: PORSCHE ANNOUNCES NEW YORK AUTO SHOW LINE-UP North American debut of Porsche 911 R, 718 Boxster, and Macan Atlanta, Georgia. The New York International Auto Show will be host to three North American debuts for Porsche this year. The 911 R and the 718 Boxster both represent the latest interpretation of driving pleasure and dynamics in their respective segments. The 911 R is a pure, uncompromised driving machine with a naturally-aspirated, 500 horsepower engine mounted in the rear. The 718 Boxster features extensive chassis enhancements and an all-new turbocharged, mid-mounted flat-four cylinder engine.