Testing, testing

When you buy an old car, it’s easy to get pulled into various internet rabbit holes – buying guides, common problems, popular upgrades, that sort of thing. But I’ve set foot in a particularly deep and magnetic one – one to rival QAnon and Pizzagate: numberplates.

- By ILLYA VERPRAET

Modern UK plates are sensible and a bit boring. There’s only one legal font and the first two pairs of numbers and letters tell you roughly where and when the car was first registered. Back before 2001, though, fonts were a free-for-all. There was a vaguely standard one, but I’ve seen everything short of hieroglyphs.

I’ve recently bought a BMW from 1990, so I had the idle thought of sourcing a set of plates with the same font as the one the BMW press office used in period. I know you’re not supposed to put plates on your car in anything other than the current style, but since you’re allowed to drive around with old plates, surely no one is going to take issue? Spirit of the law and all that.