American Style
 

Looking through ETKA and the Internet over the weekend.
I noticed that the Americans run two different types of number plate brackets on their grills.

No plate.
https://flic.kr/p/ddq2Na
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ws7minp6rt...riginalxv4.jpg

or a smaller plate for the people that wants to run a plate.
http://www.lltek.com/images/Hofele/a..._S8_look_z.jpg

I'm not a fan of the front plate. We've gone over this in another thread talking about the full open mouth grill.
But I'm wondering if anyone has done either the above?
What's your thoughts on the front bumper reflectors?

I'll upload a picture of mine later, but my number plate is 5 characters long ('S8 ***') so I bought a shorter chopped off number plate which is the size of that silver 8's in the second picture.

Still have the original small holes each side of it though from when I assume the very first number plate was fitted. Will get round to filling them in at some point and touching them up.

I was actually going to post a similar thread yesterday.

I prefer the top one, but would prefer it plain without the 2 chrome strips as they would look odd with a plate on it. Not sure if such a ring exists though.

The bottom one would be great, but US plates are taller than ours so it would look a bit ridiculous.

I like the idea of the side markers on the bump strips.

Is it illegal to not have a plate displayed at the front??

As I am seriously thinking about it now
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-GENUINE-...c2ee96&vxp=mtr

£80 delivered, not bad I have to say

It is. Some people put it in the front window but that looks absolutely woeful.

That grill is nice, but again I'd like 1 without the chrome as a number plate would over lap the 2 strips.

You WILL pay additional charges to import the cover plate Marcin as I have already been through this. The breaker/dealer in the US wasnt particularly "helpful" in that I got charged a shed load more for importing mine on top of the cost! :mad:

Do you have that grill?

Yeah Neil, this is D3 how have you got that grill on your old banger :Confused: :p

(Repost, sorry!)

Here's mine. Literally just got a plate which is chopped short rather than change the bumper piece itself. And as you can see the original holes are still each side of it:

http://i59.tinypic.com/2lbgg7r.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/35nbsrm.jpg

http://i59.tinypic.com/1j940l.jpg

Not a fan of that personally, if I had a shorter plate I wouldn't want the standard recess.

That looks great to me Con, ur giving me ideas +++

If the car was white I wonder if you would get away with the letters and numbers being stuck on by transfer then it wouldn't need the reg recess.

(May be a problem with reflection at night I suppose)

Nope I have the D2 bumper filler as it was called which is kinda trying to do the same thing. But I was talking about buying parts from the US

Keep up Dezzy lol

M-A8, It is but but it also depends how anal the police are around your way.
I spent 3 years with no front plate on my BMW and never had any issues.
I'm more than willing to do it again. Just need to make sure the rest of the car is legal and they seemed ok.

You should not need to import the plate blanks. The dealers should be able to order the part for you.
Audi and BMW both have been able to get the parts for me for items that was only speced out side of the UK.

Conquistador, You need the smaller plate recess. :)

Is this the one you mean?

http://images.quattroworld.com/proxy...832592c589.jpg

Or can you actually get one with a smaller plate recess for UK height plates?

The mount for the number plate in this one is the same size as the US plate.

I suspect you can only get the american size, not a combination of the american width with the UK height. Unless you want to cut two up and make something?

A short UK plate would look better in there I think.
Despite the height issue.

I phoned Audi, the price of number plate blank is £86 but no idea on delivery.

http://media.europaparts.com/catalog...807285c1rr.jpg

Looking at the above image.
You could possible cut the bottom section out.

Aye, I'd thought of cutting it but you're never going to get it 100% smooth and tidy.

I assume you can get all these in the gloss black too?

Where did you get the part number for the plate blank?

You might not be able to get as smooth as the rest of the trim but I suspect you could get it close or trim it up a little bit more and hide it before the plate?

All the pictures I've found of them seem to be in gloss black with the chrome strips.

I just described it to the Parts guy and he found it.

Ok, thanks. Good work!

I assume its a bumper off job to remove these?

No idea.

If I can get all the bits before Inters, I'll get the front end sprayed and all new bits fitted.

I can't bare the thought of removing the bumper. It was a bumper off job to remove the grill on my TT.

I'd be very surprised if you don't find the police clamping down on number plates even more after October this year. The DVLA are doing away with tax discs and as such will be even more reliant on the roadside cameras that take your plates and check against the database. As well as being illegal and probably failing an MOT that is.. :rolleyes: They are a necessary evil IMHO.

Agreed, the car should have a number plate on the front bumper where its supposed to be in my opinion.

That said, shorter plates like the one posted above are still legal.

Bikes don't have them.

Bikes aren't required to have them but.

Their not (They did have them) but surly bikes not having a front number plates removes all argument for the need of cars to have them?

Not really, cars are far larger. Regardless, law requires a car to have one on the front.

No it doesn't.

Bikes don't have a suitable position to fix a number plate on the front, that is why it's not required.

All cars do

As long as the spacing and font size is legal and correct, you can have whatever shape front and rear plate you like.

Lots of cars can come with different shape rear plate from new - Jaguar, Lexus, Bentley, Land Rovers etc. you can have a great big star-shaped plate if you like, just as long as the letters are legal.

I understand what the law says about plates.
But I was just wondering why cars have to have them and bikes don't.
Bikes did have them on their front mud guards, so why did it change?
I guess that's a question for a different thread.

I attended a speed awareness course a few years go :tuttut: and I actually asked that question to one of the guys who was talking there and also asked what are the police doing about the bikes that speed through the forward-facing average speed cameras aka. the yellow vultures. He was an ex-traffic cop and advanced driver blah blah blah.

Was a bit like the House of Commons when I asked the question - others were goading me on and muttering in agreement and the best answer he could come up with was that if the same bike is speeding through every day then members of the public will report said bike and they will assume that biker travels through that stretch of cameras at the same time each day and they will be waiting to intercept him when they expect him to be there! :Confused:

I've always found it odd.
Only had a front plate on the past vehicles cause I could not find a method that I was happy with with removing it, until now.

DVLA says this for bikes.
I've never found a decent answer from anyone with in the law about it.

EDIT:
This is a new line to me

That's right, 3D effect lettering is somehow allowed. Looks a bit tacky and boy racer-ish imo. A honeycomb background is also legal I believe. :tuttut:

A quick goole search revealed:

Manufactures spend millions on getting the aerodynamics right on a bike. With only two wheels, in line, the slightest change to the frontal area can have significant effect on the stability of the machine, even at speeds of 70mph. Adding an old blade style plate, especially a flexible one, would alter the dynamics in an unimaginable way. And what about the poor old pedestrian, (or wanabe biker as I like to think of them,)being sliced open before being thrown a few hundred yards is just going to make them more upset.

Sounds like common sense to me.

Plus, in the future, number plates will include RFID technology, so a camera being able to 'see' the plate will be totally unnecessary anyway.

When its put like that it does make sense.

RFID chip, no need for plates.
Amazing!! :)

Soon you will have RFID chip in yourself and face recognitiongood enough so that cameras will pick up the driver

Why do you think the BCG injection leaves such a scar

In some states in america a front number plate is not required and audi sell A8 and S8 with just a grill .. no blanking plate just straight chrome slats and it looks lovely

Further to the motorbike argument .. I myself am a biker and always wandered how a brand new bike at £8000 is allowed no front plate and yet a £250000 ferrari 458 italia with aero dynamics that are costing ferrari 17 million a year just to perfect are made to display a front number plate

My friend removed his from his 458 quite rightly it was awfull

We got stopped and he was given a telling off and a producer to show he had gone and fitted one ...
After 3 days we fit a show plate much smaller ...

He then got a fine for incorrectly sized characters on the number plate

Twisted ..and makes me angry when I had points for the aaverage speed zone and had I have been on my bike I would have had non at all because of no front plate