I've been feeling retrospective lately. I may just put together a new version of my Ryephile.com and build up a quick guide to MINI tuning from everything I've learned over the years. We'll see how it goes.
A friend of mine was asking how many cars I've had over the years, and it sparked me into building a vehicular resume'. My latest makes it 18 total, though I only ever had 3 maximum at any one time. I prefer to only have two cars, a daily and a special. Personally I can't satisfactorily up-keep more than 2 at a time, otherwise I feel like I'm letting them sit and rot, which is the worst kind of car torture IMO. Through all the years of Neon's, Mustang, BMW, MINI's [5!], Miata, Lotus, and hot-rod fabrication I'd like to think I've garnered a nice breadth of vehicular experience, and I feel it's only right to help the good people in the community.
I've read your posts from the time I started tracking my MINI. That would be a fantastic resource--hope you can find the time to do it!
Good luck with the Lotus--I've spent some time reading the Lotus forums, and it's amazing the number of folks who have Lotus's also have or have owned a MINI--similar crowd!
There are a few of my fellow instructors at the track that have Elises. We trade places on the track pretty often. A really friendly bunch. I have even had them hand me my track times.
Anyway, as a previous owner of a new '72 Lotus Elan, I couldn't resist the offer of driving a 2006 Elise on the track. What a ride! Also, the Elise is the inspiration behind some of the aero stuff for the MINI that will be released at the 2010 Dragon.
I even had an Elise rear diffuser on my MINI for a month or two for track testing. Well worth the money I paid for it while we developed a MINI-specific variant using 2010 F1 race car ideas.
