whats the smallest LEGAL front number plate size
 

seen in halfords they do smaller legal number plates, what size are these?

It can depend if you have a private plate or not and the year of the car..

hhmm, i've no problem with lettering font / size of lettering, spacing of letters.

what I'm not want is my plate 'FIL 973' having a load of unnessary space at the start and end of the plate.. if you follow me.

As I know when I pick the car up next week it will be on normal stanard size plates from the dealer.
if thr is smaller LEGAL plate sie, i'll go get some made up.. maybe on line.

Wouldn't you be able to get that on a square plate reasonably well. I have a jap stle plate on the front of mine it looks prity good and still legal.

Hth

Doug

I dont know if this is true or not but Ive been told that unless you car is an import then you have to have the propper style plate not a square one.

Mine is a uk car. If you take off the front number plate and there is a smaller rectangle underneath then it is legal to fit a jap style plate. I'm not sure in the legislation of square plates as the jap style one isn't truly square I was just going to get a normal one when I was getting a new one and that's what I was told.

Doug

I done the same thing, private plate on a block plate. Mine wasn't a import so got stopped. £60 fine and had to take photos if I do it again they take the plate off me. Stupid but yes

+1

Bit of a Pikey plate, isn't it Phil?

Do you loike daags?

If its an import you can use these sizes. If not, just chance it, and keep a copy of the regulations in your glove compartment and say its an import.


This is a copy and paste extract from the OPSI site.

" Size and spacing of characters: special cases"
14A. — (1) This regulation applies in relation to any vehicle imported into the United Kingdom which—
(a)
does not have European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval; and
(b)
is so constructed that the area available for the fixing of the registration plate precludes the display on the plate of a registration mark in conformity with the requirements of regulation 14.
(2) In relation to a vehicle to which this regulation applies—
(a)
each character in the registration mark must be 64 millimetres high;
(b)
the width of each character of the mark, other than the letter “I” and the figure “1”, must be 44 millimetres;
(c)
the width of every part of the stroke forming a character in a mark must be 10 millimetres;
(d)
the spacing between any two characters within a group must be 10 millimetres;
(e)
the vertical spacing between groups of characters must be 5 millimetres;
(f)
the width of a margin between the mark and the top and lateral sides of the registration plate must be not less than 5 millimetres;
(g)
the space between the bottom of the mark and the bottom of the registration plate must be not less than 13 millimetres; but, within that space, the space between the bottom of the mark and the top of the name and postcode of the person by whom the plate was supplied must be not less than 5 millimetres."

I've no issue with the size and spacing of letters/numbers, as i'll have those done in legal font (I think it's called Charlie Wright)

I want to know what the gap needs to be from the last letter/number to the edge/end of the plate.. and the same goes for the start of the plate.

This is hard going but the info is all there.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2.../contents/made

This is the relevant page and it looks like you can't trim anything off a number plate. Though I can't find a minimum size stated, just that there has to be a minimum of 11mm border around the characters. :wonder:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2...chedule/3/made

Surely the size and shape of the plate depends on the size of the registration as long as the figures and letters are the laid down size.

Les

11mm... as post #2 says.

You can cut a standard plate down - providing you keep the required BS number and bit about who made the plate.

That sounds about right to me.

Last time I did this I measured the distance between the top of the tallest letter to the edge of the plate and used that as the measure. I then trimmed the gaps at the sides back to that amount. It was like that for four years and I never had any problems. I will be doing it once again when I get my arse into gear and get the plate put on my new car.