I think the only way would be to put the grills on first (with holes made for the mounting screws) and then mount the speakers.
To be honest, I don’t why I bothered. In 9 years of Lotus ownership, I have never used the stereo.
Not just me then… probably mentioned it before, but it took me 7 years to realise that I had a CD player.
My Grills are in a box somewhere, they keep popping off anyway even if you can get them off!
I’m seriously considering taking my rear speakers out, I’ve really taken to the in-ear headphones approach for driving now, since having the baby the opportunities to have two people in the car have pretty much dropped to nil!
All the speakers do is add a few rattle sources and of course, weight!
There’s got to be a 3D printing opportunity for some blanking plates for the speaker holes… any experts in that field?!
I do actually like listening to music or podcasts on long drives to and from trackdays. I went back outside again and pulled the speakers back out. Even getting the grills in place on the workbench was harder than it should have been. I fitted the grills, put holes through so the screws could go in after and then mounted it all back in the car.
Then got the seats in
So it’s all good to go again.
Not much to report at the moment. I’ve continued to take the car out for short blasts (Seloc/TLF breakfast meet) or trips when I could easily have taken my ‘sensible’ car but chose not to. I’ve now already done more miles in the exige than I did in my S1 elise in the previous 12 months.
My wife came out in the car with me for the first time at the weekend and gave it the thumbs up. Appparently it’s much more comfortable than the elise was and quieter at cruising speed. She only experienced full throttle to about 8k rpm once, - when I saw her reaching for something to hold onto and then I got told off afterwards 
Here it is lurking in the background with some other seloc/TLF owned cars.
Was out and about in the car again yesterday, I’m still absolutely loving driving it. Up to Newlands Corner again for breakfast, the weather was better this time
Then popped up to wave hello to some family from a safe distance and took a few photos while there
A slightly better one showing the seats/wheel
I can’t wait to get this on track now and see how it compares to the elise I had so I’ve started looking to book something in the next few months.
So far on the road I can’t get over how different it is to drive compared to the S1 elise, aside from the drama of all the noise and the aesthetics with the wing etc I’m finding in the wet it’s much more playful. You can tip it into a roundabout, the rear will start to break loose and then playing with the throttle to adjust the balance is sublime. It seems much more eager to break traction and slide than the elise did - not sure yet whether that’s down to geo or just the extra torque/power but I like it.
Nice selection of cars on your outing. Can’t get over how much I love that colour although I am yellow fan
I really need to get some proper photos of it in the sunlight
Good work Andy, the car is looking great, you won’t be disappointed on track👍
Took it out for a drive again today, although the battery was flat when I went to start it up, seems like 3 weeks is too long between use and I’ll have to remember to leave it on the trickle charger more often.
First trackday booked for end of October, can’t wait.
Looks good, where you at and of October?
Brands indy, it’s one of the closest to me so with the uncertainty of staying away overnight etc at the moment and the fact I haven’t been there since about 2014 it seemed like a good choice.
Very nice, I think harnesses are one of the better bang for buck additions for trackdays. Safety aside (as that comes with its own set of complications such as cage vs no cage, hans vs no hans, etc) it really helps when you’re actually tied down and not investing considerable effort to keep yourself on the right side of the car 
I agree, purely from the point of view of control over the car they are a must have. Normal 3 point inertia for the road though, visibility is bad enough as it is!
I had to return some things to the DIY shops, why take the practical car when you can take the exige and a 20 mile diversion first, right?!
First trackday complete.
IMG_20201030_074137_660 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
Yesterday at Brands Hatch, Indy circuit. It must be the wettest, most slippery trackday I’ve ever been on.
After the scariest sighting lap, it rained pretty much non-stop all day. I was there with one friend in his turbo mx5 and another in his civic type-r on his first ever trackday.
The car ran faultlessly for over 100 miles on track, although it was a pretty easy day on the car with only a few seconds of full throttle squirt on each lap. I couldn’t get anywhere near the full braking performance without locking the fronts. For most of the day I’m not ashamed to admit I must have been one of the slowest cars out there. Anything fwd or with traction control was much quicker. I didn’t care though because I was having so much fun learning the on-limit behaviour of the car. It feels so controllable and neutral on the limit but it’s also much looser both front and rear than my S1 elise was - something which I’d started to notice on wet roads. I’m still unsure if this is down to the tyres, geo/setup or just the extra power. It certainly has extra power though, I am very much looking forward to a dry trackday where I expect it will feel like an absolute weapon.
PXL_20201029_150912181 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
I’ve set up bluetooth OBD and GPS sensors in the car now, combined with my old gopro hero 3 and Harry’s laptimer I’ve been able to get some data overlays on the in car footage.
https://youtu.be/HDEx5Yuzw9s
This lap from later in the day was about 1:17 I think, the fastest I managed was a 1:15. That’s just a guide to how much I was pushing in this video though because I was in no way concerned about laptimes during the sessions. By this stage of the day I felt confident I knew where the car would slide, understeer or have grip so I was happy to let it move around and wasn’t concentrating on driving a particularly smooth or fast lap.
I’m very pleased with the car, it sounds bonkers on full throttle which adds so much drama to the experience. I’m still undecided whether to put a louder exhaust on, they didn’t noise test it yesterday so I’ve got no baseline to work from. It’s quiet on driveby though according to people watching from trackside.
IMG-20201029-WA0022 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
I doubt I’ll drive it much over winter so might take the chance to SORN it, remove the front clam and see if I can get the aircon working, rad and towing eye post replaced.
Great stuff 
It looks like you were at least leaning on the car a bit in the video, it’s crazy how these cars can go for one of the fastest on circuit in the dry, to slowest in the wet 
Some pics from the photographer on the day
2020-11-02_10-19-02 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
2020-11-02_10-25-30 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
2020-11-02_10-33-40 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
2020-11-02_10-26-09 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
2020-11-02_10-32-06 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr
2020-11-02_10-27-10 by zimbarbaluba, on Flickr