Smaller front plates

[Neal H]

Blimey, did they need to scramble four cars when someone reported a Lotus with no front plate!

[The Pits]

I ran a small front plate on my Exige for years with no bother. Full size had to be stuck on for MOTs, that was it. Never got pulled fortunately.

Would like to do something similar for the Evora but it has two screw in mounting points which means the plate has to be a certain size to fit. Just fitted a cut down plate with full size letters which looks a bit better but would prefer to go even smaller.

[GFWilliams]

My old plate... 

I’m back to normal size now, not worth the risk 

To be honest I don’t think the smaller plate looked any better

[DrRick]

I didn’t find an online vendor that’s seems to Ben able to accommodate the full current uk reg format, but shrink the plate background somewhat. And not charge you £75 a pair for the privilege.

https://replacement-number-plates.com/plate-maker/#!designer

They talk about the Oblong UK plate being 520mm x 111mm, and then give an option of a 460mm, or 424mm, or 406mm, by 111mm to name a few. And they move the reference number thing to suit. Can’t quite work out yet whether the 460mm wide would leave sufficient border to be OK. I have no 1 or I to worry about either.

[mik]

Call the place I linked to on p1.

See Contact details

[j2 lot]

I ran 3/4 plates on my previous Europa for about 5 years and then ran legally spaced cut down plates on the front of my last Evora and never had any issue or comment and was often parking in, or next to, Police Office car parks. 

I have legal plates on the front now (because I haven't got around to getting new plate made up) and a cut down legal plate on the back 

Edited January 21, 2018 by j2 lot

[alexthewheelman]

On 1/17/2018 at 07:53, mik said:

 Evora has a normal sized plate, but I used to run a smaller one on my VXR8. Got challenged on it twice in 5yrs (once when turning in a police car park,  once pulled on the move). Carried a copy of the regs with me as the VXR8 was never fully UK type approved so it just had to meet import requirements - which allows shorter height text and 11mm spacing all round.

I used https://www.myshowplates.com . They didnt have a std size that suited, so they agreed to bias the text, BS logo etc to 11mm from one side, and I cut the excess off the other side. They looked good.

 

Even the cops do it with imports..... check the middle vehicle. I may have kept a copy of this image in the car too....

I ran a shorter plate when I had a VXR8 too! Although standard height and lettering sizes as it was a private plate and so could fit.

I use Demon Plates, they will do any custom size if you ring up and give measurements as well as including the BS number which I believe is a requirement.

http://www.demonplates.com/

I am planning to run shorter plates on the Exige as well so will get some pics up when that is done.

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

I run with full size plates on all my cars. Easy to source and no worries with MOT or police.  

[mik]

39 minutes ago, Alex1710 said:

I ran a shorter plate when I had a VXR8 too! Although standard height and lettering sizes as it was a private plate and so could fit.

Mine was a private reg too. It was always much easier for folks to realise what it was trying to say if they heard it at the same time....

[swindon_alan]

On 1/17/2018 at 15:26, DrRick said:

Traffic Taliban up here in Scotland would probably be all over it if they get a chance, and given my mileage I reckon I'd come a cropped sooner rather than later.

I worked on a contract for an English police force for a couple of years and the subject of misrepresented number plates popped up on the intranet about every two weeks. Some forces are probably more focused than others but I'm the same - it isn't worth the additional hassle, particularly when you have any sort of Lotus that can already do (or has the potential to do) some erm, very illegal things!

[Martrack]

One related question.

On some Exige models, we can see that the front plate is at the very bottom of the bumper.
On some others, it is in the middle of the grid, which IMO prevents from a decent cooling... Seems to be the case on all Sport 410 / Cup 430.

Can a new Exige model be ordered with the the lower plate support ?
Without having to leave the 2 original screws / supports in the middle of the grid ?

Thank you !

Edited September 26, 2019 by Martrack

[milesofsmiles]

I realise that this thread is a couple of years old. But I have received a letter from the Surrey Police to say that they 'know' that I have an illegal plate and that I have twenty eight days to rectify it. So I thought I'd update the thread with some info I've found.

The letter doesn't mention what is illegal or how they know!  With a little internet checking, I find that this is a common place thing and I am by no means the first to receive a surprise letter from Surrey Police.

I have a fully legal rear plate and an identical looking front plate which is just slightly smaller. So I assume that's the reason for the letter. But it may not be? They are not 3d/4d or any of they jazz... 

To correct my illegality - 520x111 is a standard size plate, but 464x101 is the smallest legal plate I can go to according to plate makers if I have 7 digits.

So that's what it's going to have to be.  

[TomE]

Are you saying your plate is smaller than standard size but still legal, or illegally small?  I have a 5-character registration and although it's on a standard sized plate at  the moment, I'm intending to use a legal minimum size on my Emira.

[C8RKH]

I have a 5 character plate - my letters are the correct size and font and I use 1 space as required in the correct position - check here: https://www.bnma.org/advice-centre/number-plate-design/legal-fonts/#:~:text=All number plates (except motorcycle,I) must be 50mm wide

My plate front and rear is "smaller" than standard as can be seen in the picture below - 355mm x 111mm (standard is 520mm x 111mm).

I have bought my plates from PlatesForCars (www.platesforcars.co.uk) for years and NEVER had a problem with the Polis in 10+years of private plates.  

https://www.bnma.org/advice-centre/number-plate-design/legal-fonts/#:~:text=All number plates (except motorcycle,I) must be 50mm wide