myPlates were pretty happy with the little video we put together for December’s EOYM and they’ve asked me if I’d like to put a little feature together in relation to custom plates and what they mean to me, so here goes!
A custom number plate is one of the first modifications I do to a newly acquired project car (and there’s been over 20 of them so far!). There have even been a few times where I’ve ordered a plate before buying the car!
I personally think there’s something quite visually disturbing about a beautiful car with a standard plate. Standard plates are ugly, and stand out like a bad watermark over a beautiful photograph, and as I mentioned in the video, a lot of people complain about the expense of running a custom plate, but if you look at it as a completely legal modification that you can’t get defected for, and also consider the huge visual impact, then for only a little over $1 a day to name your pride and joy doesn’t feel so bad.
For some, the hardest part is choosing what you want on the plate, personally I like to use chassis codes or engine numbers to name my cars. It’s always a mad moment when you realise the plates you want are available. I still remember the buzz I got form punching in “RB26”! There are some pretty whack plate designs available on myPlates right now too which really adds to the fun once you’ve found that your plate is available.
It’s always nice to reflect on previous rides, so I thought I’d share a few photos of my previous cars (and my GT-R which of-course I still own). I thought I’d specifically focus on cars which had plates I was really stoked on.
RB26. The plate makes this car IMHO and has really become it’s name. A few people out there don’t like it that it’s a yellow plate, but it’s a custom yellow and what’s nice about custom yellow plates is that they’re as small as the amount of letters on the plate. IE: If you have 2 letters, you get a very tiny small yellow plate. As you can see, RB26 is a smaller yellow plate much smaller than the standard size.
My track spec MKV GTI. MKV stands for the Mark Five, the 5th generation of VW Golf.
My second DC2R was super clean and dead stock. They’re getting hard to find in great original condition, and will forever be a classic. Sometimes you don’t want to ruin such a clean classic with power and/or visual modifications but in this case a plate was nice. B18C is the engine number. There are so many Honda kids out there running B18C engines, in all sorts of cars, so I was surprised the plate was available.
TME is short for “Tommi Mäkinen Edition”, again, a stock car (damn it was amazing stock!), but the plates really made this car. I called the car “Tommi” for when you read “TME” out loud it spells “Tommi”. I’d love to buy one of these again, and if I do I hope I can re-purchase this plate (as it just wouldn’t be the same without it).
My Honda Jazz had a K20A engine conversion. Bit of a cheeky plate, those who know, know!
Short and punchy! 2K, short for “2000” on my S2000.
And yup, my Honda Zoomer has a custom plate too!
Visit: http://www.myplates.com.au