Number Plate Format

[jojo77]

I have been looking and I can't find the answer, so either its not here or I am not searching for the correct term...this title should be easy for someone to find in the future.

I found a few different examples of members cars below, are all of these formats legal in the uk?
I would like 2 lines, 4 over 3 chars like the example on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_re ... _Plate.PNG


Can we also use 3 over 4? like this member
uk 2 line: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=5272
uk landscape: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=3936
us metalit type: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=4606


I am probably starting at the wrong end of the buying process...but I always do things out of order.
thanks

[stunned_monkey]

The DeLorean will receive a W, X or Y reg when registered as it was manufactured from 81-83. A car cannot wear a plate younger than the car itself is unless it is registered within 3 years of manufacture. There are a couple which were actually registered in the UK in 84-86 and therefore got as far as C reg I believe.

...but unless you buy one of them or buy a dateless plate, you're stuck with 3 over 4 in the form ABC 123W

[Chris Williams]

A lot depends on what you like really for the actual style of the plate. You can and are allowed to use a plate that fits in the space provided by the actual bezel. Or as in one of the other pictures a forum member makes 'Euro style' number plate holders that look great and look stock. A lot of people do run the US style stamped plates but they are 'probably' illegal but would usually be overlooked by the boys in blue, unless your very unlucky. However it will be interesting to see if they start to clamp down a lot more on 'illegal' plates now there using just ANPR to keep an eye on road tax.
Chris

[jojo77]

thanks guys

none of my preferred registrations would be valid, but at least I now know the formats I can use.
If all goes well when I meet some members & their cars next weekend I'll be starting to look for a car of my own

thanks

[Chris P]

Ive changed my number plate/ rear light set up, after much deliberation I have reverted to the US style set up. It s all plug and play so could be changed back to Euro-spec in half an hour. I have re-gigged the rear lights using some nice little bulb holders off ebay, which had done away with that trouble prone bulb board affair, and also gives me 4 rear lights and four stop lights.

[Darren C]

Chris P Wrote:Ive changed my number plate/ rear light set up, after much deliberation I have reverted to the US style set up. It s all plug and play so could be changed back to Euro-spec in half an hour. I have re-gigged the rear lights using some nice little bulb holders off ebay, which had done away with that trouble prone bulb board affair, and also gives me 4 rear lights and four stop lights.

WHY on earth would you want to do that Chris?

That's totally loosing the cars history

[Chris P]

I am not 'loosing the cars history',just putting it to one side while I enjoy driving it. Its not a museum car. Its the car I look at several times a day as I use my garage, its the car I take out as often as I can. And it annoys the hell out of me that one of the most beautiful views of the car…from the rear..is marred by the awful looking trailer lights. Its also a constant reminder of the senseless failure of the whole project.

Whilst in receivership, in the autumn of 82, This specially prepared car, along with a couple of other Euro-spec cars should have been on display at the London Motor-show, launching the car into the UK and the other RHD countries of the world, as well as Europe with the Euro-LHD's like Eddies. A few days before the show, the British Government were tipped off about what the FBI were up to and they instructed the factory mangers not to take the cars. Then John Z, obligingly walked into the FBI sting and that was it….fineto…Liquidation….the end of the rescue deal….. the end of the dream.

I'm fed up with explaining to folk why the backend doesn't look quite right.

I'm keeping all the bits and when a new 'custodian' eventually takes over the car, he/she can re-fit them if they want. In the meantime I will enjoy looking at, and driving my car, as Giugiaro designed it……not the results of some desperate engineers fruitlessly trying to keep the company going.

[Darren C]

Hi Chris, I still don't get it?

Although the lights are "ugly" they DONT stop you using the car????

Its like taking the Mona Lisa out of the frame (rolling it up and putting it in the loft for the future) and using the frame for a picture you favour more, just because your fed up of how it looks and people asking "why no eyebrows?"

Just my two penneth. :wink:

But in the words of William Shakespeare, in the opening lines of Twelfth Night (in reference to your love having an excess of Deloreans)

"Tis not so sweet now as it was before"

[Chris P]

I understand your point of view Darren.

Ive lived with this car a long time now and it was better when I had a choice…now I've 'downsized' my cars, my thoughts are a little different. :|

[Darren C]

Sounds like the start of an automotive divorce :roll:

[Rissy]

I'd do exactly the same Chris. Federal style was a final design. Euro-spec was a stop gap infancy effort to get the car into the "East side of the pond" limelight.

It's not a permanent change and it's completely reverseable. So you go ahead and enjoy it that way if it suits better now.

Everyone's tastes change throughout their life. There's also nothing wrong with a wee play now and then.

[Chris P]

No I don't intend to divorce the old Girl…just give her a facelift….on the rear…....so to speak..

[Darren C]

Rissy Wrote:There's also nothing wrong with a wee play now and then.

Yeah Rissy, lamp enlargement for the same reason Biff Tannen got Lorraine Mc Fly's Breasts enlarged :lol:

Chris, you should know better as Club Historian.

It's a very sad thing you have done.

It was great to see your car stand out with it's "Original Factory modification" in a sea of Delorean Clones.

Now its just mundane.

[MikeWard]

Darren C Wrote:Chris, you should know better as Club Historian.

It's a very sad thing you have done.

It was great to see your car stand out with it's "Original Factory modification" in a sea of Delorean Clones.

Now its just mundane.

Darren, to be fair, the Rubbolite lights and surround that goes with them are ugly as sin.

Chris has improved the rear of the car no end by re-adding the federal spec rear light clusters and bezel. Personally I would do the same if it was my car. As has been said already, the originals are always on hand should he ever decide to change them back with no harm done.

[Darren C]

Your missing my whole point here.
Its not about whether the car looks better or whether the old lights were ugly, its about loosing something special......rarity & originality.
I'd rather see them on the car than in some box in a loft or in old B&W pictures or history books.
That's what I am in mourning over.

Whats next, converting it back to LHD ! :wink: