The Lotus Grand Tourers

When I bought the Excel it had some nasty blaupunkt speakers that had rotten away.

I ended up with a set of pioneers that were under £40 a pair.

Pioneer TS-E1002i: 10cm 2-way Coaxial Speakers (110W)
Pioneer TS-E1302i: 13cm 2-way Coaxial Speakers (180W)

The rears that were fitted before must have been larger than the originals as the fiber glass had been butchered to get them in.
I tidied the edges and fitted the 13cm but I don't think they would fit as direct replacements.






The sound quality is great for the price, they were just lacking somewhat in Low Frequency punch, so I'm using an old 10" vibe active sub in the boot.
The fronts were a perfect replacement fit.

It was hard to find suitable front speakers with a narrow overhang ... I searched everywhere and ended up with pioneer component speakers (£180 a pair a long time ago!!). These have external crossovers and tweeters mounted on the dash, so the door speaker is bass / mid range unit.

The 6x9's took a lot of fitting too. I cut out the original recess for the (horrible) 4" speakers, carefully rescued the leather trim panel. Mounted the 6x9's without their original grilles to the rear of the MDF (I think), then screwed the MDF panel into the remaining plastic section of the car panel.

The rear of the original leather panel with the hole was fitted with domestic speaker cloth and large velcro strips, the other velcro attached to the MDF panel holding the speaker ...

I dread to think how many hours and how much money I spent on the installation but it does sound great! Hmm, ok, it must've been £1300-£1400 but worth it!

ps. Shaun, I think there are clips on the back of the quarter panel that release the part I've fitted grille material to - you need to put your hand through the speaker hole to release them unless you plan on removing the whole rear quarter panel. Sorry, I did this at least 14 years ago and the memory has faded a bit!

Thanks guys, useful information

This is the set up I have. The fronts are Pioneers which are the same diameter as the originals but sound far better.



The rears are Blaupunkt BGx 542 which I bought in the Lotus parts sale for £12 the pair. They were listed as Elise rear speakers. At 13cm they were too large to fit into the existing apertures so I made up some new panels to mount them in. As usual I've made sure I can return the car to standard without leaving any visable marks. The Blaupunkts are an even bigger improvement over the old speakers.

Very neat Kevw. Your interior looks in fine fettle from the photos too

Shaun

Thanks Shaun. The interior is in decent nick but I had to re-colour it after it was neglected by the previous owner.