Azureblue

Nutbeem, I lived through Benny Hill and couldn't stand him then, D_Schultz, Coupling was excellent. The most bizare thing about our registraion plates is that the vehicle licensing agency can "take away" your vanity plate or fine you if you miss-space the characters to make it read better. Whilst openly advertising these numbers on the DVLA website. X1 presently offered at 500000 uk pounds.

Jim Howley

About 18 months back there was A1 and 1A for sale, both owned by the same company, £500,000 for the pair.

dhicks

As a Brit here in the US I thought I would join in this thread....us brits love our small nimble sports cars....many of us were brought up on minis, spitfires, MG's, austin H's, sprites etc etc .... all cars that did not have ultimate HP or high top speeds. These were used to travel the windy twisty roads that abound most of the UK and many other parts of Europe......today the modern small sports cars are just as loved...including something we do not get here in the US ... the "hot hatch" again very nimble cars but generally more HP these days.....Porsche was revered for its grunt, nimbleness in the right hands and its "danger" in the wrong hands!!! To drive one on these types of raods is a great feeling...especially when you get it right, powering round a 90 degree sweep with the pedal burried to the metal the back end sliding - in control - agrhhh only to meet a tractor taking up 2/3 the road and dropping great clods of mud behind it.....ah yes the thrill and fun of driving a true sports car on the british country roads!!! I miss them ....

Alon

As far as the owner/author write-ups, it's not just the Brits. Us Canadians love our Porsches too although we generally have the same type of roads as the Americans. I agree that the Brits have a passion for anything Porsche and they don't necessarily believe that newer is better and more expensive = better. If you look at the folks running Total911 (and their contributing writers), they are a bunch of die-hard 964 fans (at least that's what most of them own) and I seem to be the lone 993 in the bunch. WIth their smaller, tighter roads, big HP cars don't seem to make as much sense as smaller, nimble, lightweight cars.

Johnny G Pipe

We're also disproportionately high consumers of RS Audis and Cabriolets in general?..although from what I can tell, people seem to like the idea of a cab more than they like putting the flipping thing down...

Is a cultural thing, then - but we're still behind the rest of Europe in attitude to sporting drivers. Driving quickly in the UK frequently engenders an unecessary, unpleasant, often obstructive - to the point of dangerousness - response from other drivers.

The vanity plate thing is a little weird. For most, its a bit of fun for a couple hundred quid - but once youre into the thousands..? Surely there are better things to spend your money on.

dhicks

Another angle on this story is the source or p-cars.....in the UK many were/are bought as company car perks....so many original owners really had the car for snob value and not for what the car really represented....however...it was generally the second third and fourth owners that appreciated the car for its true value....this accounts for the older cars being owned and pampered

Johnny....know your part of the country well.....some exceptional fun roads....I lived in Linlithgow....just down the road ;-) from you....my son raced at most of the kart tracks....Scottish Champ in Jn Rotax about three years ago....raced at Knockhill in XR2's and F Ford as well

Nutbeem

LOL!

I like the "folksy" writing style too - "Angus originally had his 3.2 serviced at Slough Porsche, but has had subsequent maintenance done at Langdon Porsche Specialists in Berrytown, where they added two new tyres and fixed a crack in the windscreen."

There's definately a warmth and community in the writing that we lack. They do tend to be a bit "rah rah" for my taste, though, not very critical when appropriate. Don't try to tell me that buying a 1982 924 with 117k miles will represent a "remarkable opportunity to own an often overlooked Porsche with good power and handling for $5k." Come on, now....

Marc Shaw

Yeah, it does come across as advertising sometimes when they should be a little more objective.

Marc

BigLou

I agree with what was said above. America is caught up with muscle cars. Its seems like sports cars take a back seat to the muscle cars over here. When I was watching the Barrett-Jackson auction I was amazed at what some of the muscle cars were going for, while some European sports cars were going for about as much as what you would see them in the Autotrader for. I too have a muscle car, 67 Camaro/327ci/4spd. I have had it since highschool,(about 17 yrs) and its fun too drive but no where near compares to a nice European sports car, especially a P-car. I got alot more driving pleasure out of my 928 than my Camaro. The Camaro is fun at stop lights and roasting the tires but not in the twisties. We need more shows like Top Gear, and less Nascar shows. Speed channel is over run by Nascar progams, I mean there are even Nascar Reality shows, come on. One of the best automotive shows (TopGear) isn't even on Speed Channel. The guys on Top gear crack me up. It seems Europeans in general enjoy driving more than than the average American(Rennlisters excluded).

Lou

robbed666

I think us Brits have a passion for all forms of transport. very few of us see it just as a means of getting from A to B. The irony is now we have no car manufacturing base left, albeit a few specialist like Morgan, and Noble (and I think they're produced in S Africa!). As for American muscle cars I love 'em. The parts for them, even over here are mostly available next day.
An example of car/bike mad UK: I've my Porsche and 'stang (plus others). My next door Neighbour races Austin Healeys, he's brother has a Hemi Cuda (plus others). We have a common friend who has a brace of Pantera's. The guy accross the road races TR's. There are two more Porsche's a few doors down. I take my dog to the kennels, the guy who runs that, has a garage full of vintage, 50's 60's & 70's motorcycles. The local Airproducts rep who visits us, rebuilds 70's Jap Bikes in he's spare time. My storeman is away every weekend showing he's creation, a Nitrous, gull wing doored, airbagged, Hyundai coupe. (Yes, we do take the **** in very large amounts!).

P.s Benny Hill used to live about 10 Miles from me. he had an unusual life style, also he never owned a car.

Johnny G Pipe

Hi David. Yep, w've some freinds in Linlithgow (the Andersons..?). We're pretty spoiled with Knockhill, Crail and all the Karting tracks around!

I'd love to race one day, rather than just do the track days and karting, but sounds like I don't have your son's talent..btw you'll recognise my avatar as the hairpin (although its always being renamed lately, depending on which car franchise is paying...)

harris

believe me ...


Y E S ! ! !

Adrian

Actually this is not quite true. There are some excellent roads in the USA like in Utah which are very similar to Scotland. Many other examples as well that I have personally driven.
There are American motoring journalists who do such road tests inmany cases inspired by the Jeremy Clarksons and 911 & Porsche World ways of doing things.
Unfortunately their work (99% is freelance) is not being published in the USA car magazines.
They can get the cars, even from PCNA, they can find the roads, they can do the similar type tests, but it all seems to be somewhat politically incorrect in the mainstream US car magazine market for Porsches to be tested this way.
If you saw a model year 2004, yellow 911 Turbo hurtling along the roads from LA to Utah last year I know who was driving.
Ciao,
Adrian.

PS: If you just mention speeding in your Porsche on some of these Rennlist forums you get a bunch of people jumping down your throat. Road kills are now forbidden conversations in many Porsche related communities.

Computamedic

Marc,

The thing that you miss out of the equation is the exclusivity such a plate buys you. In the US, as I understand it, vanity plates are available at relatively low cost as long as the plate is unique. In the UK, whilst this is also true, what makes it more difficult is that you cannot just make up the plate as you wish. The registration number is allocated by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority and it's a matter of luck and imagination if the number fits your desire. Numbers can be transferred from vehicle to vehicle - with some strict limitations - and this can account for the exclusivity and price.

For example, you cannot put a number on a vehicle to make it appear newer than it is. So you can't, for example, put a 2005 plate (i.e. XX05 XXX) on a car first registered before 2005. Similarly you can't transfer a plate from an old scrapped car to a new one - the "donor" car MUST be road worthy and MOT tested as such.

My own plate - C4 YLO (a 1983 plate) - was available at a relatively low price since it's "value" to me is not so obvious to someone who doesn't own a Carrera 4 in YELLOW. But plates which accidentally spell a name or initials can have a huge value.

It's all part of the "British" way - you'll just have to forgive us!!!

Regards


Dave

Nutbeem

Jolly good, Dave! Your plate fits perfectly.

Yes, we can choose our own "vanity" plates - in California, we can even go to the DMV website and play with variations and check if they're available.

I must say, Porsche owners probably have a higher proportion of vanity plates than any other marque - at the Ventura show last month, every other car had a vanity plate.

"2 FST4U"
"911 DRM"
"UWNTIT"
..etc.

One of the better ones I found was on a brand new 997 Carrera S - his plate was: "IXIXVII"