Peter mourns the loss of easily-remembered car registrations, and high-profile plate changes.
► Can you remember the registration number of your very first car? Mine was 484 KOG, and it was an Austin A35 van. That was replaced by Mk2 Cortina estate NAP 278F which in turn was replaced by Fiat 128 NDY 687K. Then there was Austin Maxi LUR 547L, after which my love of the BMC Farina range started with an Austin Cambridge A55 Mk2 YFN 464, followed by A60 JYF 405D, and then Morris Oxford LJJ 39D. And so on…
Anyway, the point I’m making is that all these numbers were very, very memorable. Exactly the same applies to the current classic fleet – Minx 697 CKJ, MG Magnette FFB 124 and Rover P6 OFL 134J. Then there’s the Volvo 240 estate which has my personal E17 PAS mark.
By contrast, my daily driver Volvo C70’s DU61 EAG is instantly forgettable.
Anyway, two things started me thinking about all this. The first was that I’ve just received for review a copy of newly published Motor Vehicle Registration Numbers of Great Britain 1974-2001 by Jonathan Del Mar. This follows similar books covering the periods up to 1963 and from 1963 to 1974, and the detailed information it contains on what was issued when and where is absolutely amazing! This is the period when much of the original system of local codes began to break down for various reasons including office closures and some areas simply starting to run out of their area codes, resulting in some moving.
For example, when Brighton VRO started running out of ‘W’ suffix marks in 1980, it had to ‘borrow’ some ‘PC’ marks from Guildford and some ‘BW’ marks from Oxford.
This is also the period when certain numbers (including my E17 PAS) started being held back for possible eventual sale, meaning where they were issued bore no relation whatsoever to area codes.
All this, and much, much more is explained in fabulous detail – this book is an absolute must for motoring historians or anyone else who wants or needs to trace where particular vehicles started their lives. I have all three, and they are all used regularly! To order, email the publisher directly at djnewall@outlook.com. Be quick though, the first edition is limited to 500 copies.
The other thing that started me thinking about old- and new-style numberplates was the fact that the ‘new’ 24-plate replaced the ‘73’ year code from March 1, 2024. Did you notice? Did you even know about it? I’ve got to say that I was only vaguely aware that the plate was changing sometime about now, but it really doesn’t seem to be that much of a thing. Is this in part at least because the new year code of 24 is a significantly lower number than the outgoing 73?
This is in stark contrast to the period from 1967 to 1999 when the annual plate change in August was a huge thing! Pretty-much everyone, including a lot of people with a ma
