No front plate

[Scotmove]

I have noticed that certain sports cars dont have front number plates, say if there was no where to mount it. My question is, can these cars be caught by a speed camera?
My understanding is that the camera uses the plate as a reference point ot calculate the speed the vehicle is travelling at. Even if this is not the case, the plate is used to identify the vehicle, who the vehicle is registered to and their current adress. It is also used as proof, ie the picture which clearly show the front of the car and the plate.

If I have got this all wrong, i apoligise.

Cheers

[touching cloth]

All cars (in the uk) should wear a front plate, if a car does not it is purely at the judgement/risk of the driver. Not having space to fit one does not offer an exemption, there will always be a way to mount one, just might be ugly that is all.

[Aston77]

I must agree with Touching Cloth all cars in the UK must display a front number plate by law.

[streaky]

Aston77 said:

I must agree with Touching Cloth all cars in the UK must display a front number plate by law.

Except the State cars used by HM the Q - Streaky

[SS2.]

Scotmove said:

My question is, can these cars be caught by a speed camera ?

Yes.

For starters, not all cameras are front facing.

In the case of hand held mobile units enforcing from the front, the operator would either spin the unit around and film the rear of the offending vehicle, or jot down the registration plate of the vehicle as it passed - no different to what they do when they ping motorbikes travelling in excess of the limit.

And don't think that you would necessarily be safe from front facing static cameras either. ISTR a case recently of a biker who was repeatedly being photo'd by a Truvelo (some times pointing two fingers at the camera). The police managed to track him down, not through a registration plate, but through BMW and the unique mods he had made to the front of his bike..

[Scotmove]

Thanks for the responses. Just i have seen veyrons, enzos, certain SLRs, 599's and 612's without plates, rare cars I know but still not complying with the law.
As for the speed camera issue I appreciate not all cameras are front facing, but as has been said the polica had to track down the motorcyclist through a lengthy process. This would, is some cases, have to be the same with these cars.
Also what about cars with foreign plates on them. I have seen a lot of supercars rolling around with arab plates on them. Can the police track these cars were the to be caught speeding.

I apoligise that we are mainly discussing this in theoritical terms, and about an extremly small band of hypercars, but i am genuinly interested!

[NobleGuy]

I damaged my plate about 3 months ago and within a week of driving without it was queried by an officer. They were fine about it given I had a new one on order. Probably could have just ignored it and got away with it for longer.

[peterguk]

Guam said:

IN The US many States now have no Front plates. I believe its a safety issue for pedestrian incidents, is there not a case for abolishing them here as well??


Cheers

Tom

Why? Removing front plate is hardly going to make your car soft and cuddly to pedastrians..

[rich 36]

they are steel though right!

our own plastic,

would be less injurious perhaps?

[sparks87]

The Ferrari Enzo is actually exempt in the UK from having one.

[rich 36]

Wow not aware of that

Nothing worse than Alfa's for utterly destroying the symmetry
with those bracketed things to One side

[SS2.]

sparks87 said:

The Ferrari Enzo is actually exempt in the UK from having one.

On a UK registered Enzo ?

Interesting.. How so ?

Edited by SS2. on Sunday 14th October 18:51

[peterguk]

sparks87 said:

The Ferrari Enzo is actually exempt in the UK from having one.

How so??? I thought Ferrari only wrote the rules on the track, not off it too...

[H_Kan]

To be fair, looking at an Enzo it would be very difficult to mount one on the front. Have a look at Enzos on the classifieds and you'll see that they aren't wearing a front plate.

[Athlon]

No way is an Enzo exempt, construction and use and from this month the MOT have strict policy on fitment,font and spacing of front and rear plates, if it ain't got one it ain't getting an MOT.

[JMGS4]

Aston77 said:

I must agree with Touching Cloth all cars in the UK must display a front number plate by law.

[pedantic mode] NO!! All UK registered cars must have a front numberplate, not all vehicles in the UK, I remove my foreign front plate in GB due to oppressive scamera artists [/pedantic mode]

Edited by JMGS4 on Monday 15th October 08:07