UK drivers - experience of driving without front license plate..

There are other issues too, not just legal ones, as you may find it very inconvenient with the increase in ANPR.

Car parks take your registration as you enter and then their system knows that the ticket issued to that car has been paid, making it easier to leave usually without having to insert the ticket at the exit barrier.
Petrol stations use it to prevent people filling up and driving off (not that this seems to make a difference!) and if their system cannot read a front plate you may not be allowed to refuel.
At ports when turning up for a pre-booked car ferry, the staff already know who you are before you even wind down the window.
Toll booths also use it, especially if you are using a fast pass system or season ticket.

I do not know if any of these systems use cameras at both the back and front of the car, but if it is just the front, you are going to be making life increasingly difficult for yourself as more ANPR systems, that are supposed to make our lives easier, are introduced.

Also, if you keep the car for 3 years, you will need a number plate anyway to get an MOT, unless you have a very friendly testing station!

Robert

 

Most use the front. I know this because the damn ANPR at the long term parking at Heathrow could not read the front number plate on my old Alfa Mito because of the offset plate on Alfas. That wasn't the only place where I got stuck in that car becuase ANPR could not read the plate.

 

I used to run everywhere in a car with NO plates at all, a jag XJR for running around and I didn't want to make it easy for speed cameras. I used to keep the plates in the boot, broken in two pieces, then if and when I was stopped, I'd show the broken plates, tell the cops kids had damaged them overnight when parked, and sometimes get a ticket requiring me to put plates on and show a policeman at the station (every third or forth stop). This is going back to the late 1990's, and their computers didn't seem to keep pace like they do now. I would turn up at a station (it could be any) with plates fitted, get the ticket signed off, then drive away and take them off again! It was great fun. Once you start driving exotics though, you can't get away with it as the cops are intent on getting you for anything, so they don't turn a blind eye to missing plates ever!

 

Musicman,

We've posted elsewhere in this forum about our line of quick-release front plate brackets for Ferrari.

One thing we've found is that many owners who buy our bracket don't use it daily. Instead they mount the plate on the bracket and put it in the boot. If/when they are stopped by police they are able to comply with the display requirement on the spot. "Sorry officer I was at a car show and neglected to put the plate back on let me do that right now" sort of thing. With our mount this takes you about 5 seconds to do.

Most police, unless they are having a really bad day, will accept this and move on without ticketing you. I've had first hand experience of this here in Ontario Canada where the front plate display requirements are becoming increasingly draconian. I would imagine that your experience in the UK would be similar.

Paul

 

Yesterday a friend and I were both driving on the M25, I was in the 458 and the other car was a 488, neither of us had front plates fitted although I do carry a Carbonio fitment with a suitable number plate mounted on it. Cruising along on the inside lane at about 68mph was a traffic car with two officers in it, we had to pass the traffic car and I have no doubt they were watching us in their rear view mirrors as we approached, however we overtook the police car and they didn't bother to stop either of us. They probably decided it wasn't particularly safe to stop us on the side of a motorway and let us go.

 

On the 488 i have not bothered to put the front plate as it looks much better and havnt been pulled over. Didnt have it on 458 either for 5 years never got pulled, got pulled over for speeding on a few occassions but never got told off for front number plate

 

Ive gone with a very small plate mounted on a slightly modified (with a hack saw) carbonio mount - I get loads of complements on it as its different
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Nice car Jessie. By the way, your initials are the same as my dads! He wants your plate

 

Ive been buying all the jwh plates (bar one because i was out if the country) that have come up for sale in the last 12 years i have corned the jwh plate market and now have a monopoly on it

 

Ah-ha, that's why he had to settle on S11 JWH then, cheap, and at least when it was on his S class it had a relevance!

 

I have an Alfa 4C and the front number plate is huge issue.
So I have 2 black cable ties threaded through very small, self adhesive, black anchor pads, and then these are threaded through the lower front grill. They are almost invisible against the black grill. If I'm stopped I'll say the number plate must have fallen off the adhesive pads. I've been driving around like this for a year and not yet been stopped.

 

Nice work around. The cops are too busy nowadays apparently watching out for drivers overtaking cyclists too closely. I mean, it's not like we have terrorists blowing up kids that they should be preventing is it........ oops, yeah we have. Never mind, send the cops out on bikes with cameras and make sure no one frightens them too much while they jump red lights, ride 3 abreast, and occupy any part of the road they feel like! That's a fantastic way to spend limited police resources.

 

Lovely colour on your 458

 

Given some of the very small plate options other countries offer we have made a design revision that allows future customers to mount their plate without modification. Having looked into all of the world front license plate sizes we now cover the whole of the Ferrari owning world

 

My 488 doesn't arrive for a couple of months.

The plan is when driving locally to run without a plate and keep it in the boot. On any longer trips and European trips I have a Carbonio mount and a super short plate from fourdot plates.

I also have a short plate from fourdot for the rear

Regards

Michael
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Nice

You getting yours from Carrs? It's been my dealer for 16 years now! They know me better than anyone hehe

 

Yep from Carrs, Mark is looking after me there.

First time I have used them, but they seem pretty good, better than the bigger dealers in my opinion...

Regards

Michael

 

Yeah, it's very much a family type business, they have some good guys there, Mark, Lee, Piers, and Harv is a great tech. Very good place to take your servicing too