Would you add this lap-timing app to your Lotus?

Hold the front page! You can now spec your Lotus Elise or Exige with something that looks dangerously close to an ‘app’. Yep, two of the last paragons for pared-back simplicity are embracing a connected world.

Very much on their own terms, though. What you’re looking at is the ‘Digital Instrument Pack’, and you can fit it to any Elise or V6-powered Exige made after 2008 at a cost of £1,470. Purists might scoff at the fact it trades intuitive analogue dials for a new-fangled digital set-up, but we reckon they might calm down when they hear what else the ‘DIP’ can do.

It comes pre-loaded with 4,127 race tracks (who knew there were 4,127 race tracks?) and its GPS will recognise as you’re driving towards one and then record your lap times as you whizz around it. It allows Elise and Exige owners to “analyse their performance in real time on the digital display or later by downloading data to a laptop". It’s one way of filling all those extra hours we now spend at home.

The display itself is TFT, measures six inches across, and can also link up to cameras to record footage if those analysis sessions are going to get really deep. There are also shift-up lights and the ability to tweak the colour of your rev counter. Lovely.

Lotus owners: are you tempted?