GT40 Reg plate on Ebay - Relisted

For anyone that's interested there is a Cherished reg for sale to suit a GT40 owner in the UK.

JGT 40 Y. Currently at £375 this is priced to sell. If you get someone to make up plates with a non-standard spacing (there are plenty out there) then it reads

<font color="blue">J GT40 Y </font>

You can find the auction at

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6553499607

Go on treat yourself.
David.

Hi David,

OK, so this is dumb question from an American. I understand that the GT40 part is cool, but is there something about the J or Y that I'm missing? I seem to recall that one of these letters has to do with year of issue (or something like that).

I'm really surprised that anyone can produce plates (and that you can pick your own spacing). In the US it's generally the lowest bidder /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif to the local authority (individual states).

Regards,

Al

Al,

UK registrations are a funny thing. The first 3 letters of that reg specify which licencing office the car was first registered at. The 3 numbers provide a unique number, and the last letter gives the year. The numbers are not leading zero padded, so for number less than 100 you get less digits (e.g. '40' rather than '040').

Basically from 1963(A) until 1983(Y) the UK registrations had a suffix letter, from 1983(A) to 2001(Y) the registrations reversed, having a prefix year letter, 3 numbers, then 3 letters.
From 2001 until now they are totally different.

have a look at http://www.dvla-som.co.uk/home/en/FAQ/#suffix_issue_dates for more general info.
There are other sites that explain the registrations a lot better though.

Officially you can't pick your own spacing. The car will fail its MoT if the letter font, size or spacing are incorrect. Seems stupid really that the DVLA are making money from personal plates byut also specify you can't alter these factors.
Oh, and not anyone can (legally) produce plates now either. They must be marked with the makers details, have a BSAU number on them, and should ask to see the vehicle registration documents too (to stop unscupulous people putting fake plates on their cars, often called ringing). Trouble is a lot of places make 'show' plates, which is how us brits get around having interesting spacing /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Thanks David!

Al

David,
Can you explain last § as I have normal stickered plates on my car since I bought it (ie: no makers details with BSAU).Is this new as I have my MOT till Sept 05 and should be legally in line for renewal.
Tx
fred

Its John actually, but I'll answer anyway /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The bit about the BSAU plates came in last year I think (jan 2004) to clamp down on illegal plates.


There have always been rules about size, spacing, etc, but with the advent of computer manufacture plates were being produced with all sorts of almost unreadable fonts. The classic with pwersonal registrations isto make a 6 look like a G, a 4 look like an A, etc. simply by picking a specialist font, or doctoring the corners of the letters prior to laminating them.
Consequently the clamp-down on size/style of registration plates and the character size/style/spacing.

If your car has perfectly legal plates (i.e. 'normal' letters/spacing) but does not have the BSAU don't worry about it. Unless the car is less than a couple of years old that's fine. I have a couple of cars that are over 10 years old and do not show BSAU or company details.

If however you need a replacement plate as your current one is broken or become unreadable (dirt got behind the backing) you will need to go through the palava of producing your documents to get a new reg plate made.

Hope that helps,
John. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

John, (sorry not David...)
Many thanks for your input.Its OK for me based on your feedback
Rgds
Fred

Thanks John - I wasn't paying enough attention!