Etype front number plate question?

[amgmcqueen]

Hi there,

i just wondered if you guys could help me? I have recently been looking at series 1 Etypes. I have noticed that on the majority i have seen, the front number plate has been across the front of the bonnet. But some i have noticed also have 2 holes underneath the front mouth in the bonnet, where it looks like they are for a front number plate holder? They had rubber 'plugs' in the holes.

My question is what are the 2 holes for? Did Jaguar start to mount the numberplate underneath the mouth from a certain year? Was it an optional extra, or was it meant for US cars only? Are FHC and DHC different?

Any help much appreciated, Thanks!

[v8250]

Lowdrag...?

[lowdrag]

An oft asked question. The problem started with the stick-on number plates which are technically illegal, even now, but they just passed into the annals as an accepted part of the design of the car in the UK. But not in the parts of the good ol' USA they didn't, so Jaguar had to fix the problem by having the number plate under the nose with a rod system that canted the number plate when you opened the bonnet so it wouldn't get bent when it hit the floor. That was the reason for the two slots under the nose, so what you have seen is effectively for LHD cars. I'm not sure if this applied elsewhere in the world but I am sure someone will add to this reply.

[amgmcqueen]

Very interesting, thanks for the info! So dealers in the 60's in the UK just started to put the sticker number plate on the bonnet and it's stayed ever since!

Did every Etype still come out of the factory with the pushrod slot in the bonnet? Again looking at old photographs there appears to be some with and some without the slot?

[lowdrag]

The last time I checked all number plates must be flat and vertical even to this day. You only have to look at some modern Alfas to see what a job they had to make them road legal in the UK. But tempus fugit and lots of classics are around with stick-on plates and the law turns a blind eye. I mean, if I find a Scotsman carrying a bow and arrow in York I have the right to kill him according to the law, but we don't seem to enforce it much these days. do we! Jaguar were very good at using what was available on the shelf, and it wouldn't surprise me if say, they ran out of bonnets without holes that they used ones with holes for the UK market. On the other hand, it may have been a bodged restoration or a cheap replacement in the day. It is well known that there are two types of seats, coupé and roadster, and they mixed and matched according to availability. In the changeover from 3.8 to 4.2 some cars at the end had the later trim, some with arm rests, and, while I've never seen one, I believe that some 3.8 cars had the Jaguar synchro box when supplies of the Moss box dried up. If you get a copy of that heavy tome "E-type, the definitive history" by Philip Porter there are no less than 18 pages of production changes. However, though taken from the factory records, it transpires that Jaguar were more concerned with turning out cars and not the paperwork, since I've found for example a car supposedly made in February 1962 registered in November 1961! Hope this confuses you more

Edited by lowdrag on Friday 2nd October 14:39

[a8hex]

Which all makes it so much fun listening to the people who like to take their cars to concours events looking for 100% originality discussing how parts which were hand painted on the production line and which were then out of normal sight should be painted, where should the body colour paint stop and where should you be able to see the underlying black paint... Apparently there need to be rules, apparently discussion have been known to get heated and tempers frayed. Then one day a car that everyone agrees has never been touched and has lain covered up in a barn in the Rockies where it's lain for over 50 years. The experts from the various factions meet to painstaking examine the car only to find that the 2 sides are different, coz the guy on the line didn't care, as long as the customer couldn't see it and the metal was painted why should he care.

[Satsuma]

So far as I am aware there is no law against self adhesive. and no law claiming they need to be flat or vertical. simply ledgable
(2) Except as provided in paragraph (5), a registration plate must be fixed on the front of the vehicle in the manner required by paragraph (3).

(3) This paragraph requires the plate to be fixed—


(a)

vertically or, where that is not reasonably practicable, in a position as close to the vertical as is reasonably practicable,
.


(b)

in such a position that in normal daylight the characters of the registration mark are easily distinguishable from every part of a relevant area having the diagonal length specified in paragraph (4).
.

(4) The diagonal length of the relevant area is—


(a)

in the case of a mark having characters the width of which is at least 57 millimetres, 22 metres,
.


(b)

in the case of a mark having characters the width of which is 50 millimetres, 21.5 metres,
.


(c)

in the case of a mark having characters the width of which is 44 millimetres, 18 metres.

[sjmmarsh]

E-Types were registered before the relevant date (1/9/01) in the legislation, so the rule applying is:

Except as provided in paragraph (4), a registration plate must be fixed in the manner required by paragraph (3) on—

(a)the front of the vehicle, and
(b)the rear of—
(i)the vehicle or,
(ii)where the vehicle is towing a trailer, the trailer or,
(iii)where the vehicle is towing more than one trailer, the rearmost trailer.
(3) This paragraph requires each plate to be fixed—

(a)in a vertical position or, where that is not possible, in a position as close to the vertical as is reasonably practicable, and
(b)in such a position that in normal daylight the characters of the registration mark are easily distinguishable, in the case of a plate fixed on the front of the vehicle, from in front of the vehicle and, in the case of a plate fixed on the rear of the vehicle or trailer, from behind the vehicle or trailer.

[lowdrag]

Thanks for the information update. But it seems that if this legislation dates from 2001 then it has changed the situation because in the day the stuck-on plate was illegal and there was quite a bit of controversy about it. It makes me wonder though why those modern Alfas had a most horrible vertical plate to one side of the grille and not on the bonnet. Would have looked much nicer!