Driveshaft Housing Anode Aluminum Mercury Alpha 821629q1 on 2040-parts.com

New Lotus Elise S Cup R track car

Seems everyone is building non-road legal track day cars right now, and Lotus most definitely wants a piece of that action. Its latest effort is the startling bright and bewinged Elise S Cup R, pictured above. Based on the 1.8-litre supercharged Elise S road car, Lotus has done a lot more than simply lose the number plate here.

Renault unveils R-Link tablet

Renault is aiming to take its in-vehicle user interface modules to the next level with the new R-Link tablet system announced at LeWeb 2011 today, December 7.  R-Link features a seven-inch tactile screen, steering wheel-mounted controls and voice recognition systems. It is simultaneously connected to the vehicle's information and data center, the user's mobile phone and to the Cloud. The company claims that the bespoke UI features interactive and intuitive menus, which enable users to access all the car's functions and data easily.

Mountune will upgrade your Focus ST, Fiesta ST

UK-based Ford tuner Mountune set up shop in the U.S. just a couple months ago, and is already offering upgrades to the Ford Focus ST and the Ford Fiesta ST. Mountune is Ford's official partner in Europe, and their experience goes back 30 years Mountune comes from a slightly different branch of Ford tuning that North American buyers are used to -- their specialty has been tuning Ford's smaller cars in Europe rather than muscle cars, and they've worked on everything from Escorts to Focuses (though perhaps not the Escorts and Focuses that we're used to).