You know what I’ve been seeing on (almost exclusively British, and mostly Jaguar E-Types) cars for decades and just sort of quietly accepting without much scrutiny? Number plates that are like huge stickers across the hood. I’m sure you’ve seen the kind I’m talking about; if not, you can look a few inches above and get the idea. Recently, though, I started to think about these giant sticker-plates: they’re ridiculous, right? It’s a huge, foot-long sticker of letters and numbers right across the nose of your car. Who wants that? Why is this better than a regular number plate? Let’s just take a moment to think about these.
What’s also strange is that from what I can tell, the legality of these plates isn’t exactly clear. The British Number Plates Manufacturers Association, an organization that sure seems like they’d understand the legality of number plates, offers this not-exactly helpful explanation:
While the standard for number plates (BS AU 145e) is what is known as “non-prescriptive” (meaning it doesn’t specify the format of the plates exactly), it is generally thought that stick-on plates would fail one or more of the tests required under BS AU 145e so generally they would be illegal. If you are unsure, ask your supplier for a copy of their conformity certificate.
So much hedging there! They use the word “generally” twice, once with “thought” when talking about some of the tests number plates are required to pass. So, they seem to be saying that such adhesive plates are probably not legal, but they’re not coming out and really saying that, and there are companies that definitely sell stick-on number plates, seemingly fully confident of their legality. And, of course, there are all those cars out there with the adhesive vinyl plates already on their hoods, and they seem to be existing just fine.
So, why do these exist? Are these really better than just mounting a conventional rigid plate somewhere on the front of a car? Maybe on cars like this E-Type, there could be issues with a plate restricting airflow, but there have been plenty of E-Types that have successfully mounted a rigid front plate, even a big, wide European-type plate:
They definitely could use a normal plate, but so many E-Types go for the adhesive one. And you see it on other cars, like Lotus 7s:
…and Minis:
There were others, of course, but these are some of the most common ones. For the Mini, I don’t think most Minis used the adhesive plates but, significantly, the ones that raced and rallied, or at least wanted to look like the ones that raced and rallied, did. And that seems to be at the root of the appeal of these strange massive stickers.
I asked our captive Brit and actual, real car designer, Adrian Clarke, what he thought of these strange plates, and he gave me some good context:
“I think like everything what’s appropriate for the car.”
And, really, he’s right. That’s what matters here. We can talk about aerodynamic reasons or air intake restriction reasons or whatever, but what really matters is the image and tone that the owner of the car wants to convey. And while in most contexts a big-ass clunky sticker with a bunch of alphabet soup spilled on it would look clumsy and ugly, in the context of a racing car all of a sudden it feels purposeful and sporty and evocative.
It feels like racing numbers and rally entrant stickers and all those other sorts of utilitarian decals that get slapped onto sporting cars, and I think that’s what the appeal is.
But at the same time, I still think these look kind of ridiculous on an E-Type? And then, a moment later, I don’t?
What’s happening to me?
Adrian also suggested I watch the opening credits of The Prisoner because he thought the Lotus 7 in there had a similar adhesive plate. I watched it (you can too, here):
But! The Seven doesn’t have that kind of plate! It has something way weirder! Look!
It’s not a number plate at all! It’s just letters and numbers, right on the grille! I can see why they did it, because a full plate would have effectively blocked all of the little Seven’s air intake. But is that legal? This was like 50 years ago, so maybe it was legal then, but I’m skeptical it’s legal now.
So, maybe I’m okay with these plates after all? What do we think? I think we should discuss this here in the comments, at length, with real gravity. Seems important.
Let’s See If We Can Think Of What Cars Had Off-Center Rear License Plates
There Is Actually One Legal Way You Can Hide Part Of Your License Plate
Three Times GM Did Good Things With License Plates
Thankfully, Pennsylvania does not require front license plates. If I had to have a front license plate, I’d rather be a sticker on the hood than a physical plate that look like ugly buck teeth on the front bumper or grille of the car.
I’m From the UK. My first car was a 2CV with painted-on plates.
The sticker plates are common on Lotus Elises, particularly S1s, but I kept a standard plate (although cut down to the smallest legal size) and positioned it as a go/no go gauge for speed humps so I’d not damage the front clamshell.
My drift MX5 had a quick release front plate because competition regs said had to remove them. If reassembled incorrectly it would swing under the bumper at speed, which would have been great for avoiding speed cameras if my actual name wasn’t also on the car.
Since Brexit we’ve changed the letters we have to display on our plates in Europe from “GB” to “UK”. So that’s a load of new plates or an additional sticker on your car. I support the new letters because Great Britain is only part of the UK, and excludes Northern Ireland, plus now some people think you’re from Ukraine, which is way less embarrassing.
Illegal plates are quite common, but I’d rather not give the police any additional reason to pull me over.
Swiss numberplates are bit of odd specimen. You can specify the “American-sized” (Hochformat) or “European-sized” (Langformat) numberplates for the rear. In the front, you can opt for the smaller numberplates that are more or less half of “American size” in height. The Hochformat was due to the popularity of American vehicles in the Switzerland back then.
Italy allows the smaller numberplates for the front, too, if the owners wish.
I recall Germany offering the stick-on numberplates for the front for a while in the 1970s and 1980s, but I have never seen one in person.
i understand series 1 e-type cooling was less than ideal (aerodynamically, Sayer would have wanted as small an opening as the car could manage with) so you’d want every bit of that intake open. Having said that, I bet hanging the plate below the opening would actually improve the aero, very slightly; not top speed but reducing lift at very high speed. Not that I’m any kind of expert. My guess would be that in the post war period everyone wanted top speed bragging rights and they would have understood that not hanging a vertical metal plate off the front would help when you could incorporate into the paint,
I once had a ’71 Lotus Elan Sprint while in the UK and it had the same front number plate style as The Prisoner Lotus 7, some numbers and letters fixed directly to a very open mesh in the air inlet. My recollection is that this was allowed by the regulations at the time the car was built and older cars can be grandfathered in. The style probably became illegal for new cars at the time when the reflective plates were mandated
Mention of reflective plates reminds me of how the UK uses different colors for the backgrounds of front (white) and rear (yellow) plates. This provides some slight extra clues about what is where if you’re on unlit roads at night. My entirely subjective impression is that UK plates are more reflective than US ones.
Don’t forget, in the United States every state has its own plate design most if not all with multiple designs as well. Some are more or less readable than others.
For example, this was an alternative license plate you could get in Pennsylvania sometime ago. It was discontinued because it was hard to read the letters and numbers. Although apparently some lawmakers are trying to bring back the design with more legibility now.
https://www.autotrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/262048-1.jpg
https://pennwatch.org/state-lawmakers-seek-to-bring-back-flagship-niagara-license-plate/
Hahaha! I just got the joke on the plate in the top shot. WTF IS DIS? DIS IS Funny!
The original French registration “plates” on both my 1980 KV and my 1978 KV parts car are black rectangles spraypainted directly onto the body, front and rear. On the ’78 the characters are individual silver stickers:
https://live.staticflickr.com/7184/6866508661_e857f9ac16_c.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/1458/26018582300_ea68889f4c_c.jpg
whereas on the ’80 the characters are hand-painted but were later covered by metal French plates bearing a different registration number, white in front and yellow in back. I discovered this when I removed these newer plates in preparation for affixing Washington plates, only to find that the spraypaint and hand lettering would be visible along the sides of the narrower US-spec plates. I reaffixed the metal French plates and ordered an appropriate vanity plate to make the best of the situation:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49945378703_3648aa33a1_o.png
“Wrap” license plates like this are legal in California
https://sfstandard.com/2023/12/18/california-front-license-plate-wraps-dmv/#
I shit you not, I thought of these a few days ago when the article about offset rear plates was posted, as another fun license plate tidbit. I actually love how they look on the E-Type, but that’s probably because it sets off memories of 12 year old me putting together one of those babies in model kit form and thinking about how applying those decals was basically the exact same thing that was done the actual road car.
This is a fun one! I noticed this when I lived in the UK. When I lived there, at least around the base I was stationed at, you had to show the V5 form (effectively the registration) to be able to get a new plate made. The reg plate follows the car but can be changed out for a fee. The original reg number can tell you what year the car was first registered and where it was originally registered and there is a huge market for buying and selling interesting plates. And Q plates are for basically 1 off or non-conforming vehicles like kit cars, low volume, or imports.
OH! Trailers don’t get a reg plate, it is the same as the tow vehicle. So it’s really common to see (usually old/beat up) trailers with hand written number plates made out of cardboard taped to them.
Autopian Complaint time: I know Advertising has to occur on this site, but I was under the impression that us paying members wouldn’t see several of the most annoying types of ad formats, specifically:
1. Infinity scrolling types that can be a bit tricky (I’ve dealt with these the past month or so).
2. Full screen ads that pop up and must be Xed out before reverting back. This just happened for the first time on this article and I am NOT A FAN of these. Fuck pop-up ads, full stop.
I’m a very appreciative Velour member since inception, but my understanding was we would avoid some of these more intrusive advertising methods with membership support (the other ad types don’t bother me as it’s basic expectations for internet browsing). Please please look into this. No way I can go full Corinthian on my budget, but this new ad formats feels like the old German lighting site.
Jason, you would absolutely love my job. I’m a consultant engineer that does work in multiple industries, a lot of which do not have prescriptive regulations – there’s a lot of “follow industry best practices”. The amount I write “typically”, “generally”, “can be considered”, and (my personal favorite) “it would be appropriate” on a given day would be amusing if it wasn’t so depressing. Almost every client wants definitive answers where no such thing exists, much to their frustration.
As for the sticker license plates, I like them.
I think that front plates are realistically a necessary evil, so having them as adhesive is a much lower stylistic impact option. IMO these should be an option for the overwhelming majority of places that have front plates.
I am 100% for front plates.
If they ruin your car’s “style” or cooling, then your car’s style and/or cooling was designed insufficiently.
ingot a ticket in San Diego in my F150 (plated front and rear). I had backed into a tight spot because it’s easier to fit into the spot when the last wheels into the spot are able to turn. The ticketing officer had sidled around to the back of the truck to spot the out of date license tag on the rear plate (I’d failed to put it on the plate or the DMV didn’t get it to me in the mail). I haven’t effed up the front bumpers of the BMW or the VW to afix the front number plate. In 9 years, I haven’t been ticketed for that in California (I’d better knock on wood for saying that out loud).
I had a (used) Ford Aspire for about 5 years. Where I am, the plates go with the car, one corner has an expiration-month tab (that never changes) and the other corner a yearly tab. Each year you stick a new year tab over the old one. One night I got ticketed for having the month and year tabs swapped. It had obviously been that way since the plate was new (before my ownership), close to 7 years.
Yeah, the coppers look for the correct color (& thus year) and if it doesn’t appear where they first look and expect it to be, it pisses them off. I got lit up on the freeway one day because I didn’t have the correct year tag, but I thought the Highway Man was going for the truck towing a trailer in the wrong lane, changing lanes w/out lane change signals and driving over the towing speed limit. Obviously, the sure fix-it ticket revenue was more attractive to him than the actual safety on the road.
Where was this? In Pennsylvania, we got rid of our license plate registration stickers a number of years ago. Sometimes miscreants would steal them by clipping them off with metal shears and use them on their plates. My license plate still has the last year sticker from 2017 on it, layered on top of all the previous years.
Reversing into parking spaces that are perpendicular or angled (that is, not paralleled parking) to the street or roadway should be mandatory. Reversing into the lane of traffic is madness..
I’m against front plates in general, purely because they interrupt styling so frequently. adhesive number plates are a great compromise and they should be legal globally for anyone that doesnt want to compromise the front end styling of their car.
Front metal plates are great. If a crash is bad enough and the car flees, often times they leave that perfect evidence behind. Plus, hard to block a front plate like a Thule bike carrier does in the rear
Honestly, those carriers should have to have their own plates.
Yeah i just dont care about that.
It’d be much easier and more cost-effective to just abolish front plates. They’re redundant, anyways.
How are they redundant? If someone hits my car and then reverses and drives off, depending on the angle, the front of the car might have been my only opportunity to identify them.
I dislike the idea of defacing any vehicle with permanent stickers. Sure, with a fair amount of work they can be carefully removed, but at the risk of surface damage.
Now, if they come up with an electrically switchable adhering process that atomically bonds the plate with with the car surface and the reverse, that would be OK.
Better keep up with your monthly subscription, or it flies into your windshield.
My father has an antique (1955) British motorcycle with a full fiberglass fairing. The original UK registration number is simply painted on the fiberglass below the taillight.
Why don’t they use magnetic plates?
They’d be really easy to steal.
And stick them to what? The plastic front bumper? The aluminum skin of my pickup?
Not to mention, any magnet on a car would probably leave similar marks/scratches/long-term sunlight wearing differences a sticker would, anyway.
What I struggle to understand is why car designers don’t factor front plates into their designs. It’s not like its a surprise that 99% of countries require a front mounted plate. I’m looking at you Alfa Romeo…
On that note, I do love how Corvette did it with the C4 and 5, that very rad indent + special cover.
BUT it only fits US number plates. I get that the C4 & 5 were only designed for the NA market, but you stick a euro plate – or even our NZ plates on and they just don’t fit – they look off
That is an excellent point. My Suzuki motorcycle is Euro-market spec, but was sold here in the states…so it has a large rear plate surface that looks silly with the tiny U.S. license plate covering only the top part of it.
100%. I hate how seemingly 98% of cars (U.S. resident) have the front plate as top screws only.
I specifically added the lower screws on mine b/c of exactly that, but I know that’s not possible with many models.
This is an alternative mount for European cars:
https://www.amazon.com/Front-License-Plate-Bracket-Copper/dp/B09TDJNFCK/ref=asc_df_B09TDJNFCK?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80264479386473&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583863999311258&psc=1
the VW came with one. I made one for the BMW, but had to modify it to mount the plate below the hook to avoid blocking the Park Distance Control sensor.
Alfa Romeo made a styling decision to have an offset front plate. It’s deliberate.
I do know of a car where the designer got the size of the rear plate wrong, and it only got spotted after the tooling was paid for. Expensive error.
We do. It’s just some companies do it better than others.
MINI Cooper’s rear plates are clearly designed to accommodate the wide European/British style plates. It’s funny because my little Pennsylvania State plate is sort of floating in the middle of this largish empty space.
Likewise, there is a flat molded in section on the front bumper that accommodates the European style plates, below the grille. Of course in Pennsylvania mine has nothing.
https://hips.hearstapps.com/autoweek/assets/s3fs-public/100909999-1.jpg
Death to all front plates.
I second, third and fourth this comment.
Fifthed!
May front plates live long and prosper.
Why?? What’s wrong with having accountability to each other?
It’s ugly. I’d rather chase someone down and if I’m not in the state to do so, they’re very likely to have identifying damage and if not, then they win. Oh well. I’d rather not have the ugly plate.
9PT8MS2
took a sec. to read PT as .
And I have yet to drive in a vacuum.
What is that in furlongs per fortnight squared?
Looking at my Matchbox collection, my mainline Jag E-type has that style plate, as does my Ford GT40.
What’s interesting to me is that maybe we’re getting to the point where technology might make this seemingly-quaint British practice actually doable in the modern age?
Computers in police cars can instantly tell you what vehicle any alpha-numeric designation belongs to, so as long as there are standards about size/font/visibility, why NOT allow people to do it that way?
Also, of course No. 6 did it that way. He did both build the car himself AND is a bit of a non-conformist.
California is “testing” adhesive front plates. I think it’s a great option.
Yup, legal here:
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/news-and-media/dmv-highlights-new-laws-in-2023/
Yeah, testing is over. Expensive tho: https://licenseplatewrap.com/
Anything to keep from forcing us to drill holes into our perfectly good bumpers is a good thing.
…I really don’t see how it’s a win if it’s still going to leave marks if/when removed (say, if you move to one of the…19? states without front plates) in the same way a car bra does.
Wait, so the plates aren’t standardized? This is completely new to me.
Nope! You used to be able to select custom fonts, though that was stopped when harder to read fonts started showing up on plates.
Pre 2001 the rules were a lot more lax. Even now it’s more something that won’t be picked up on unless you’re being a real twat.
They are standardised. The standard is BS AU 145e.
Fun fact: you can cut down your UK plate to within 10mm (3/8”) of the characters and it’s still legal. If the characters are narrow or you have fewer than 7 characters you can have a shorter plate. You can also choose to have the plate as two lines of text one above the other for a “square” plate.