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Aftermarket Elise and Exige parts supplier Sector111 has started publishing an electronic, online-only newsletter/magazine called OneElevenLife. It’s free, and you can download the premier edition here.

The May/June 2007 issue of the free Lotus proActive newsletter is available for download here. This issue covers various news from Lotus and the automotive industry in general, the advantages of reducing vehicle structure weight (and how to go about it), the robot-piloted Elise used in an upcoming DARPA competition, CO2 emissions reduction.

An unfortunate Elise owner in Ireland has decided to take matters into his own hands. After his car suffered numerous minor attacks by other cars (and one cyclist), he and his brother are going to fix it up themselves. Seems like a smart plan, as they stand to save a lot of money in the process…and, given his luck to date, this will be a good skill to learn to deal with future incidents! Let’s hope this sad story has a happy ending and the car gets back on the road quickly! You can read all about it over at beautifulaccident.com.

This kit has been in development for quite some time; I thought it had been for sale already but this is the first time I’ve seen the website advertising it. I really need something like this; a few months ago I moved from near sea-level in California to 8500 feet elevation in Colorado, and the power loss has been noticeable. Not to mention all the hills around here where I could use a little boost. Cost is $4500 for 2005 model years, $4750 for 2006 models (the drive by wire in those models necessitates the difference). This gets you a 50hp boost of power. For another $1k you can get the ECU reflashed with a lower cam changeover (5750rpm) and disabling of the learning feature.

As you probably know, the website for Lotus in the US, lotuscars.com, has been undergoing a bunch of changes lately. While most of it is still under construction, I noticed they’ve put up quite a few videos, follow this link to see them.

Just a heads up for all you Elise and Exige owners, a new potential problem is surfacing that everyone should watch out for. There have been several failures of the rear suspension due to loosening bolts; some are the hub carrier bolts, some failures are the inside upper control arm bolts loosening. Until this is figured out for sure, it’d be wise to check the torque of all these fasteners on your car before driving it anywhere. You can read more about it in this thread over at EliseTalk.

What’s kinda scary are rumors that Lotus made a change at some point (’07, I think the rumor goes), to replace the control arm bolts with one of a higher grade. Supposedly, it’s something that’ll be retrofitted to older models ‘as needed’, which is kinda scary as they begin to get out of warranty later this year (the early ones, at least), at which point issues like this are not likely to be covered.

Motor Trend has a nice review of the new Lotus track toy, the 2-Eleven. Those lucky Brits are actually able to make their 2-Eleven street-legal, by adding some headlights (no such luck for US buyers though). The car’s based on the Elise, though ads a supercharger to boost engine output to a nice 252hp - and a curb weight of only 1477lbs! Read more here.
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Most expectant parents struggle coming up with that perfect name for their newborn boy or girl. Well, struggle no longer; for all you car freaks I present this list of car names for babies, all of which rank as fairly common names and hence not all THAT unusual (note, Elise ranks #218 for girl names). That same website also has a list of car names for babies that were popular in the past.