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British license plate queries


Bengalensis

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22 minutes ago, johnlambert said:

In my mind it seems more like a car for a flashy, urban person, not someone from a poor, rural or industrial location. 


I believe 3-wheelers at the time could be driven by someone with just a motorcycle licence. The Bond Bug would be something of a major step up in street cred compared with the Reliant Regal. 

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One more point; this comes from the 'Construction and Use of Motor Vehicles Regulations (N.I.)' and afaik it applies to GB.

The letters on the registration plate have to be between 3 1/8 and 3 1/4 inch in height. The gap between each letter and each number must be 1/2 the width of the widest width letter, nominally H is taken as the sample, so the gap is 1/2 the width of the H. The gap between the letters group and the numbers group is to be no less than the width of one letter/number and no greater than 1 1/2 the width of a single letter/number. The index (registration number) must read across in one single line, exceptions for rear number plates on motorcycles and other vehicles where it is impractical to display the index in this manner. No fixing of the plate must be used which appears to alter the letter or number to a different one

 

In a previous life I knew all this stuff, and a lot more, for business reasons. Once learnt its hard to forget

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53 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:


I believe 3-wheelers at the time could be driven by someone with just a motorcycle licence. The Bond Bug would be something of a major step up in street cred compared with the Reliant Regal. 

I think you still can. A Morgan 3 wheeler would be a step up from both! 

 

Keith

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1 hour ago, johnlambert said:

. . . 

  In my mind it seems more like a car for a flashy, urban person, not someone from a poor, rural or industrial location.  You probably can't go wrong with a London registration.

Of the 3 Wedges known to me;

1 was owned by a young new art & modern languages teacher at my school

1 was owned by a top Belfast architect. He also had a Lotus Europa. Chosen so he could open up plans on the engine cover at building sites - I kid you not, he told me and I saw him doing it

1 was owned by a very nice looking young lady who lived near me

 

Next; we have to sort out the tax disc for this Wedge

 

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3 hours ago, keefr22 said:

To take your points in order

 

- yes

That's great, it seems I've managed to learn something here. We're making progress 👍

 

1 hour ago, johnlambert said:

The Bug was close in price to a new Mini at the time, so it was not expensive but not necessarily a sensible purchase.  I think the owner would likely want the new-style number plates to show off his (or her, or their) new car.  In my mind it seems more like a car for a flashy, urban person, not someone from a poor, rural or industrial location.  You probably can't go wrong with a London registration.

I'm thinking something along those lines of the likely owner and where he/she would have lived, and I'm also leaning to the newer white/yellow plates for the same reason.

 

1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:


I believe 3-wheelers at the time could be driven by someone with just a motorcycle licence. The Bond Bug would be something of a major step up in street cred compared with the Reliant Regal. 

23 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

I think you still can. A Morgan 3 wheeler would be a step up from both!

I thought maybe you could, but even if so it would still always follow the car registration rules?

 

41 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

One more point; this comes from the 'Construction and Use of Motor Vehicles Regulations (N.I.)' and afaik it applies to GB.

The letters on the registration plate have to be between 3 1/8 and 3 1/4 inch in height. The gap between each letter and each number must be 1/2 the width of the widest width letter, nominally H is taken as the sample, so the gap is 1/2 the width of the H. The gap between the letters group and the numbers group is to be no less than the width of one letter/number and no greater than 1 1/2 the width of a single letter/number. The index (registration number) must read across in one single line, exceptions for rear number plates on motorcycles and other vehicles where it is impractical to display the index in this manner. No fixing of the plate must be used which appears to alter the letter or number to a different one

 

In a previous life I knew all this stuff, and a lot more, for business reasons. Once learnt its hard to forget

Thanks, it will fit well into the size I must make the plates to fit the model, at least in height. I'll see what happens in length when I begin to draw it up properly, compromises may be necessary then. I'll have to make it work on ca. 4x20 mm plates to make the rear end work properly the way the model is mastered, about 100x480 mm or 4x19 inch.

 

11 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

Of the 3 Wedges known to me;

1 was owned by a young new art & modern languages teacher at my school

1 was owned by a top Belfast architect. He also had a Lotus Europa. Chosen so he could open up plans on the engine cover at building sites - I kid you not, he told me and I saw him doing it

1 was owned by a very nice looking young lady who lived near me

 

Next; we have to sort out the tax disc for this Wedge

 

All three of those owners would match a likely owner of the car I'm building, the more I think of it.

(Maybe I should start driving my Europa to my customers when I have their larger construction drawings ready...😎)

 

You're absolutely right, the tax disc must not be overlooked. I studied them a little for the Peel P.50 I built some time ago, but on that I could see it reasonably on reference photos. Here I have no idea.

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The N.I. tax disc, aka Road Fund License disc, was slightly different to GB ones but I believe they followed the same pattern with a horizontal coloured stripe across the middle of the disc. The colour of the stripe changed according to the year of issue, eg, (not accurate, just as an example) 1970 - blue, 1971 - yellow, 1972 - red etc

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15 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

I thought maybe you could, but even if so it would still always follow the car registration rules?

Motorcycle plates follow the same rules as car plates in Great Britain.

 

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18 hours ago, Neddy said:

The poor OP must be thoroughly confused by now - this reads a bit like explaining the rules of cricket to a non-UK resident! 

Basic Rules of Test Cricket.
There are two teams which take turns to be in and to put the other out.
The team that is in goes in, the team that is out goes out.
The team that is out tries to get the man from the team that is in out so that he has
to go in. But he tries to stay in so he can stay out and doesn't have to go in.
Eventually all the team that is in have come out and have been in and are now out.
So the team that was out is now in and goes in and the team that was in is now out so 
they go out and its their turn to get the team that was out but are now in out so they 
have to go in. And when they have all been in and been put out they go in.
Then its the turn of the team that was first in that was put out to be in again, 
and the first team that was out are out again and trying to put out the team that are in
so they can be in and not out.

Simple really.

For five days.

oh, and all stops for tea, or rain.

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42 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

You're absolutely right, the tax disc must not be overlooked. I studied them a little for the Peel P.50 I built some time ago, but on that I could see it reasonably on reference photos. Here I have no idea.

 

Many images of tax discs here;

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=1973+uk+tax+disc&rlz=1CAKDUD_enGB937&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVz7LgvZT5AhUqQkEAHSCcDnQQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1366&bih=617&dpr=1

 

Keith

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24 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

Basic Rules of Test Cricket.
There are two teams which take turns to be in and to put the other out.
The team that is in goes in, the team that is out goes out.
The team that is out tries to get the man from the team that is in out so that he has
to go in. But he tries to stay in so he can stay out and doesn't have to go in.
Eventually all the team that is in have come out and have been in and are now out.
So the team that was out is now in and goes in and the team that was in is now out so 
they go out and its their turn to get the team that was out but are now in out so they 
have to go in. And when they have all been in and been put out they go in.
Then its the turn of the team that was first in that was put out to be in again, 
and the first team that was out are out again and trying to put out the team that are in
so they can be in and not out.

Simple really.

For five days.

oh, and all stops for tea, or rain.

Suddenly license plates seems very logic and easy. I'll stick to those. 😎

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16 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

That gives a good starting point.

 

What decideded the month in those years?

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19 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

That gives a good starting point.

 

What decideded the month in those years?

 

The date the vehicle was first registered, or if it had been off the road for any reason the month in which it was re-taxed to go back on the road. 

 

So if your Bug was registered on say 10th April 1973 the disc would show April 73. Actually, thinking about it I don't know if I'm remembering entirely correctly. I seem to recall there maybe a cut off point after which a vehicle would get the next month's disc....

 

I don't know if it's been mentioned but cars in the UK no longer display tax discs - which makes building a present day model just a little easier !

 

Keith

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2 hours ago, keefr22 said:

I think you still can. A Morgan 3 wheeler would be a step up from both! 

 

Keith

 

A pushbike might be considered a step up...

 

Slightly OT, but I used to see a vehicle on my commute with the registration 3A.  It was a Peugeot 309 - the reg must have been worth ten times the value of the car.

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Just to add further confusion to your modelling back in the day it seemed most plates were solid 3d plastic letters applied to a metal plate - for both black or white yellow options, some black plates were pressed into a sheet metal plate, or for sports cars (mostly) vinyl stick on letters on a vinyl plate, black or white type (as usually to help aero on bonnets I don’t think I’ve ever seen a vinyl yellow rear plate).

 

Since mid eighties (?) most common type is flat Perspex plate with letters on the rear and the white or yellow backing the lot.  Frequently appears as an anachronism on TV and films (cf “Life on Mars”) but virtually never back in the day.

 

For further confusion, due to an utter cods up at the DVLA when working out what counted as a classic vehicle, it recently became legal to have black plates on cars registered 1973 to   1980!!  That was potentially an MOT failure until they stuffed up their own rules.

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Tax discs could be bought for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year

Each started on the 1st of the month and ended on the last day of the month

Let us presume your Wedge is already taxed and it ends on 30th April. 

You may renew the tax 2 weeks before it ends, but the renewal starts on May 1st

There was an unwritten allowance that you had 7 days after the tax expired to get the renewal done. Strictly, in law this 'allowance' did not exist but most police officers allowed it (except one jobs-worth RUC that I knew - booked me at 00.00.30 the day after mine expired!)

Many people, back then, either took their cars off the road or took a chance when their tax expired and renewed a month or two later.

I used to do it with my motorcycles - I took the main one off the road, in winter and didn't renew the tax till spring time

 

For a while, you could only tax your vehicle up to and including the month of the MOT, but not beyond it

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2 minutes ago, malpaso said:

For further confusion, due to an utter cods up at the DVLA when working out what counted as a classic vehicle, it recently became legal to have black plates on cars registered 1973 to   1980!!

 

Already mentioned... :)

 

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2 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

Tax discs could be bought for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year

Each started on the 1st of the month and ended on the last day of the month

Let us presume your Wedge is already taxed and it ends on 30th April. 

You may renew the tax 2 weeks before it ends, but the renewal starts on May 1st

There was an unwritten allowance that you had 7 days after the tax expired to get the renewal done. Strictly, in law this 'allowance' did not exist but most police officers allowed it (except one jobs-worth RUC that I knew - booked me at 00.00.30 the day after mine expired!)

Many people, back then, either took their cars off the road or took a chance when their tax expired and renewed a month or two later.

I used to do it with my motorcycles - I took the main one off the road, in winter and didn't renew the tax till spring time

 

For a while, you could only tax your vehicle up to and including the month of the MOT, but not beyond it

 

Your memory is better than mine!

 

K

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1 hour ago, keefr22 said:

 

Except they don't have to have a front plate.

 

Various names for that front number plate, one was 'Cop Castrator', or another was 'Gonads'* Slicer (different word for Gonads, a rude one)

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2 hours ago, keefr22 said:

I don't know if it's been mentioned but cars in the UK no longer display tax discs - which makes building a present day model just a little easier !

 

Keith

 

No longer have to, but not unheard of for cars to still have the old one in (I still have the tax disc in the Focus for example). If you go to a classic car show there are quite a few where people have bought in-period tax discs for their cars.

 

1 hour ago, Noel Smith said:

Going back to the pic in the first post on this thread. 

Is that a resin kit in 1/24th scale of the Bond Bug?

What next? Del Boy Trotter's Reliant Regal Van?

 

Well if you are willing to step down to 1/32, there's already a Scalextric version :D

 

https://uk.scalextric.com/products/reliant-regal-supervan-only-fools-and-horses-c4223

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You can buy repro tax discs through the National Motor Museum at Beulieu

afair they have a machine that does it. You dial in the year that you want and the registration number and it prints one out for you

Costs about £20 per disc

A lot of my car club members have bought them for their vintage cars

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3 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Basic Rules of Test Cricket.
There are two teams which take turns to be in and to put the other out.
The team that is in goes in, the team that is out goes out.
The team that is out tries to get the man from the team that is in out so that he has
to go in. But he tries to stay in so he can stay out and doesn't have to go in.
Eventually all the team that is in have come out and have been in and are now out.
So the team that was out is now in and goes in and the team that was in is now out so 
they go out and its their turn to get the team that was out but are now in out so they 
have to go in. And when they have all been in and been put out they go in.
Then its the turn of the team that was first in that was put out to be in again, 
and the first team that was out are out again and trying to put out the team that are in
so they can be in and not out.

Simple really.

For five days.

oh, and all stops for tea, or rain.

clearly and succinctly put Sir Cumference!  That's precisely what I had in mind.  🙂

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