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Lotus Design (yeah, I didn’t know there was a division of the company called that either) has designed their first watch, and plan on releasing it for sale on February 10th. Its design resembles various car parts, such as a brake rotor and caliper. It includes a calendar mechanism, and 1/10th of a second stopwatch for timing your buddies at the next Lotus track day. Later this month you’ll be able to buy it online at Lotus’ online store; there’s no word yet whether this is more accurate than the Elise’s speedometer . Read the rest of this post for more pictures and the full press release (via EliseTalk).
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I found a place that offers reasonably priced Lotus logos designed to be hung in a garage (or living room, for you unmarried Lotus owners!). They’re made to order and available in different sizes; the 12″ is $39, 20″ is $74, and 30″ is $149 (with all profits going to charity). You can find them over at Javelin Art.

A little random humor for the day:

15. “They told me at the blood bank this might happen.”
14. “This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in the last time management course you sent me to.”
13. “Whew! Guess I left the top off the liquid paper”
12. “I wasn’t sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm!”
11. “This is one of the seven habits of highly effective people!”
10. “I was testing the keyboard for drool resistance”
9. “Actually I’m doing a “Stress Level Elimination Exercise Plan” (SLEEP) I learned it at the last mandatory seminar you made me attend.
8. “I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work related stress.”
7. “Darn! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem.”
6. “The coffee machine is broken….”
5. “Someone must’ve put decaf in the wrong pot.”
4. “Boy, that cold medicine I took last night just won’t wear off!”
3. “Ah, the unique and unpredictable circadian rhythms of the workaholic!”
2. “I wasn’t sleeping, I was trying to pick up contact lens without hands.”
AND THE #1 BEST THING TO SAY IF YOU GET CAUGHT SLEEPING AT YOUR DESK:
“Amen”

I came across a nice writeup for adjusting the Elise’s headlights, you can read it over at SandsMuseum. My car is in desperate need of that; the high beams are OK but the lows are completely inadequate. I’ve ordered some Ostam Silverstar bulbs and will be aiming the headlights when I install those.

From spies in Germany come an unsubstantiated rumor that Lotus will be replacing the 190hp Toyota motor in the Exige with a mildly supercharged version of that motor, at a 3000 pound premium, producing around 215hp. This is being done to differentiate the Exige from its Elise sibling. It’d be the same motor recently shown in the 2006 Toyota Corolla Compressor (link).

Analysis: this rumor is most likely true. The engine in question meets the Euro IV emissions requirements, so there’s really no reason for Lotus to NOT put it into the Exige. The Exige has been out for a while now, and engine power improvements are a good way to help fight the typical slowdown in sales as a model ages. The big question (well, for me at least) is two-fold. First will we see it in the US? Absolutely, it will be an option for all Exiges starting in the 2007 model year (my prediction, not based on any fact). Second, will Elise owners be able to upgrade to this? Technically, yes, but it’s highly unlikely that Lotus will offer such an upgrade path, as doing so would then negate the advantages of putting it into the Exige. However, this is yet another step validating the idea of supercharging the 2ZZGE; look for aftermarket companies (such as Ragnorak Racing) to step up and fulfill the needs of the boost-happy Elise owners.

You lucky blokes in the UK will soon have the option of stuffing a 3.5l, 300hp V6 (I *think* it’s the Nissan motor they’re using) into your Elise (S2) or VX220, thanks to a company called Plans Motorsport. They expect to have cars available around the middle of this year, with the cost expected to be around £50k for a turnkey example. The engine sits longitudinally; I can’t wait to see pictures to see how they pulled that off!

The March 2006 issue of Sports Car International (a GREAT magazine, if you haven’t already checked it out) has a review of the new Lotus Exige. I learned one thing new by reading it, Exige is French for ‘demanding’! How appropriate. You can read the whole article here or read the rest of this post to see it copied there (though you’ll have to follow the link above to see the pictures at SCI’s website).
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JL Audio has developed a compact subwoofer that fits into the passenger footwell and contains a single 10″ sub. It seems like an odd, narrow-market product for a larger company to make, until you read the product description and learn that the CEO has an Elise! Ah, that explains it. It’s not currently shipping, but you can view the product page here.

Buyers of a new Lotus Elise can now get XM satellite radio factory installed when they order the $695 premium pack (it comes with an Alpine head unit). The antenna is cleverly concealed in the instrument panel. Full story over at Yahoo.

Volkswagen’s GX3 concept (just unveiled at the LA auto show) is quite unusual for that company, and a close look makes one begin to suspect that Lotus had something to do with it, not only because of its similarity to other Lotus cars (like the 340R), but also as it’s well known that they do contract engineering work for other car companies, and certainly have the expertise to design a small sports racer like that. Well, our spies in LA report that the GX3 was delivered to the LA auto show in a truck with Lotus logos on it, by guys wearing Lotus shirts and hats; if true, that pretty much confirms it. Rumor has it that Swift Engineering helped design and build some of the composite parts, with Lotus doing much of the rest (suspension, etc). Not that there’s anything wrong with this, it’s wise for VW to recognize that they don’t have the required in-house experience to design a car like that, yet they need radical show cars like that to help build a sportier, younger image. I’ve always been a VW fan; it’s nice to see them taking some steps towards a sportier image rather than an SUV/Crossover one. You can read more about the VW GX3 over at Automobile Magazine.