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For those interested in old cars.


DDolfelin
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Back then used cars from abroad were given a current year registration. Not sure exactly when they switched to an age related plate. I think there was an interim period when such cars would be given a Q plate. My guess is that present system of Q plates and age related registrations goes back to around 1985.

 

If I remember correctly, the change to 'Q' plates came about due to misuse of the previous system by some 2nd hand car dealers, selling imported older cars as nearly new. When I worked for Customs in Croydon, South London from 78 to 81, we had a significant problem with some dealers who imported older cars from Europe that could be changed to right hand drive, known as 'Bangers from Belgium'. The favoured vehicles were VW Beetles and BL Minis. This became a Trading Standards issue due to misselling. 

Edited by rembrow
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And Manx registrations got a few years ahead of mainland registrations owing to insufficient suffixes being allocated to the island, meaning new year letters had to be started whenever the suffixes ran out!

 

 

Not correct.  Manx registrations have no relation to UK.  Because we're not in the UK!  We administrate our own registrations.

 

When MAN plates ran out we changed to MN, then with the number first, then MN with a letter in front eg AMN and after that a sort of system evolved of using a sort of UK style suffix and then prefix, but it is more complicated than that!  We now use the system AMN-123-A (with dashes between like that) we are currently up to NMN-xxx-N I think.  There is no age relation to any of these styles, therefore you can't set the age of a Manx registered car from the registration.  We also like to keep our numbers so tend to transfer the same number onto subsequent vehicles.  We have several bikes with appropriate MAN numbers - a Honda 250 with H 250 MAN for instance.  I note Wiki says we don't use A I O Q S Z on vehicles- wroooong!  A friend has O-50-MAN   'Oh so Man'.

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iirc theres a couple of hgvs running around with Deltic horns

 

Way back when, I had a CB radio in my Morris Ital, also with a front facing speaker behind the bumper (aka PA system). During the Chris Green era on NSE, there was a stem day with locos running north of Cambridge to Kings Lynn, and I was parked up at Dimmocks Cote LC (Ely) waiting for one to pass by. My wife was in the car, and she played a tape through the PA speaker, of a loco pulling hard and whistling (I think it was a chime whistle too, magic!). You should have seen the photters reaction to that...…….

 

Stewart

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Don't forget, Q plates are also subject to the 40 year zero VED rule as well.

Not sure how a Q plater would get on with the current not exemptions with the VHI declaration, however?

Only ten years to wait then! That's if petrol id still available for road use.

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This popped up on a P5 facebook group yesterday, in Warrington and in the same family ownership since it was new, looks beyong hope at first glance but I think it could be salvagable, it's an early V8 version too...

 

post-7638-0-74351700-1547650257_thumb.jpg

 

post-7638-0-42634700-1547650289_thumb.jpg

 

The 'Burnt Grey' paintwork and hand painted coachlines look original, quite remarkable really as most have been partially or fully restored by now. Even if it is beyond saving the stainless steel brightwork and glass could find a new home.

Edited by Rugd1022
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This popped up on a P5 facebook group yesterday, in Warrington and in the same family ownership since it was new, looks beyong hope at first glance but I think it could be salvagable, it's an early V8 version too...

 

attachicon.gifFS WARRINGTON#1.jpg

 

attachicon.gifFS WARRINGTON#2.jpg

 

The 'Burnt Grey' paintwork and hand painted coachlines look original, quite remarkable really as most have been partially or fully restored by now. Even if it is beyond saving the stainless steel brightwork and glass could find a new home.

It could be saved, I'm sure.  But it is probably more economically viable as a spares donor than a complete car.

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IIRC the shift to Q-plates was part of an overall revamp of registration procedures that took place in (I think) October 83.

 

Or maybe it was August 83 to coincide with the swap from date suffixes to prefixes.

Edited by PatB
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This popped up on my Twitter feed today. Thought it might interest a few here. I always thought the 2-door Mk3 was probably the best looking Cortina in profile (really very nicely proportioned indeed. Clearly Ford's marketing people thought likewise, given that they chose it rather than the 4-door for this ad.

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Quite right... It was better than that... ;)

 

Looked a million dollars agreed, but flawed in original form. 

 

Having struggled to get in and out of this flat floor one I can see why the dropped footwells were introduced fairly soon!

 

 

The brakes, gearbox  and cooling were marginal for the performance, not addressed until the 4.2 version was launched..

 

 

And the heating and ventilation never were never good right until the end of production, but it was a third of the price of contemporary cars with 150mph performance!

Edited by Southern Steve
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