Legality of non-rectangular numberplates

[SingleGrey76]

Afternoon all.

I’ve recently acquired an FK8 Civic Type R and considering a hex style rear plate because it suits the angular design of the car (fully aware I will fall foul of the taste police).

I’ve read the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001 and can’t actually find anything that explicitly states a plate must be rectangular. And curved plates have been issued from factory previously (e.g. the rear plate on the Rover 75).

Anyone inc. traffic officers or MOT testers care to weigh in on how this is really enforced?

Provided the plate meets all required points (lettering, spacing, font, markings etc)

Thanks in advance

[p4cks]

Technically they can be any shape, the rules only pertain to the distance around the edge from the letters and the font, size and spacing of the letters on the plate.

Hex plates, whilst legal, look wk.

[mikef]

Rover 75 drivers used to get away with odd shaped plates for a decade....

[TrevorHill]

They look terrible imho.

[Tickle]

I believe these are legal, as said, the offset is what matters.

How non-rectangular plates, look on a car is a different discussion however

[fooman]

mikef said:

Rover 75 drivers used to get away with odd shaped plates for a decade....

This was first thing I deleted when I got a 75, odd shaped plates just look odd

[r44flyer]

fooman said:

This was first thing I deleted when I got a 75, odd shaped plates just look odd

The plates are shaped to fit the designed space. Putting a rectangular one in that space looks daft. Same as Jaguar S-Type.

[renmure]

I’ve a Fourdot number plate on one of my cars. It’s nothing resembling traditional rectangular and does come with a small note for testers, and presumably the police, detailing its legality due to the permitted spacing and borders etc. Nobody has ever shown any interest.

[Blakewater]

mikef said:

Rover 75 drivers used to get away with odd shaped plates for a decade....

Same with the Jaguar S Type. The rear numberplates used to be deep and curved at the bottom to fit the bootlid indentation for them. I did work experience at a Jaguar dealership and a bank had bought an S Type. It supplied its own plates to avoid the numberplate charge and it supplied two rectangular ones. The rear one was too wide to fit into the indentation on the bootlid where the plate was to be mounted.

[mikef]

fooman said:

mikef said:

Rover 75 drivers used to get away with odd shaped plates for a decade....

This was first thing I deleted when I got a 75, odd shaped plates just look odd

When I saw 75s in places like Belgium, the rectangular plates looked odd, I was so used to seeing the shaped ones