The Lemon Fool

On Saturday (could have been Sunday) I popped out in the car a few miles to get some DiY bits.

As I travelled back and about a 1/4 of a mile from home I pulled up behind a vehicle with a personalised number plate

It was BO 55 TMF

It took a little while for it to register.

AiYn'U

Nope don't get it !
What can you see that I can't ?

richlist wrote:Nope don't get it !
What can you see that I can't ?

I think the poster meant it read as...

Boss - TMF (The Motley Fool)

https://www.allacronyms.com/TMF/1 lists 195 bona fide possibilities, including The Music Factory, Truck Mounted Forklifts, Temporary Mortuary Facility, and (of course) Too Much Fun. Plus a fair few that aren't suitable for family viewing.

My next door neighbour once bought a 5 series beemer that still bore the legend 540 LWT. Michael Grade's old car, allegedly. All the best and most expensive toys, but the gearbox was a goner.

Another friend once owned the doubly-evil RAM 666, on a Morris Minor. He eventually scrapped the car without ever wondering how much Ozzy Osbourne would have paid him for the plate. I wonder where it is now?

BJ

The first registered vehicle I ever bought was a Raleigh Wisp moped in 1972. It cost me £5. I rode it for a about 11months until one day I forgot to add oil to the petrol mix...it was a 2 stroke engine of course. It seized within a mile or so.

It was of course total scrap then and worth nothing. I left it behind a petrol station that my brother worked at.

A week later a friend at school asked what had happened, I told him. He said his uncle wanted to buy the moped and offered £5. I accepted.

Uncle Reg was very happy with his new reg no REG XXX

John

Odd things, numberplates. Those of us who don't think much of them (or the people to buy them) are still subliminally susceptible.

As I found out when I went to buy a "birthday surprise" first car for my elder daughter. It was an eight year old Peugeot 205, and it was a simple and utterly reliable chariot that still had enough style (in 1990) to give her a bit of street cred, considering that it was quite underpowered. But I didn't even notice the reg number until daughter put me wise. It was her exact initials, and she thought that was a pretty special thing.

Straight away, she tramlined a Mercedes with it while parking. And cried a bucket, and learned that she wasn't superhuman, and kept the car for the rest of its life (another five years), and has never had another prang in the two decades since then. I still remember that car with considerable fondness.

Unlike another car that used to be owned by another chap near here, an airline pilot. 747 JET, it was, and it suited his planet-sized ego perfectly. A complete @rse. I had the satisfaction of watching him queue-jump his way into the loading trajectory of a skip lorry, which parked its load onto his bonnet. I nearly wet myself laughing.

BJ

My first vehicle was an ex-GPO Telephones van, GUV864, now no doubt long gone to the great scrapyard. Perhaps desirable for a copper or other person in a leading position. That Morris 8 Van series SZPO with its ladder rack served me well for 2 years and 22,000 miles. I saw it a couple of years later looking loved.

I often wondered about its ultimate fate.

TJH

tjh290633 wrote:I saw it a couple of years later looking loved.

I often wondered about its ultimate fate.

Rather wonderfully, my first motorbike is now in a museum and is still registered with DVLA for road use. A 1953 Francis-Barnett, which was already 14 years old when I was given it by my wealthy uncle. All black, and a solid rear frame, so there was no rear suspension. That's the way they used to build commuter bikes. I'd driven this rolling antique for four years and had then gifted it to a fellow student, who told me he had sold it on to an enthusiastic vicar for an expensive restoration. And hence to the museum. Rather lovely to think that the reg number can confirm that it's still on the road.

BJ

In 2003 I bought a campervan and discovered a few days later the registration number (2 digits and 3 letters was worth around £5k. I still have the number today on our main car. Result.

I've spent many £000's on registration plates for my family cars over the last few years. I've never regretted it and am always on the look out for others that are interesting.

I now have a personalsied number plate.

cheers

Mr. BZH 343K (aka Didds)

didds wrote:I now have a personalsied number plate.

cheers

Mr. BZH 343K (aka Didds)

Good point, it is a lot cheaper to change your name than re-register an old plate on a new car.
The thing with these plates is they are quite easy to remember, which is not always a good thing

Although a chap I know has "4321 GO" on his Lambo, which I think is pretty cool.

Paul

DrFfybes wrote:

didds wrote:I now have a personalsied number plate.

cheers

Mr. BZH 343K (aka Didds)

Good point, it is a lot cheaper to change your name than re-register an old plate on a new car.
The thing with these plates is they are quite easy to remember, which is not always a good thing

Although a chap I know has "4321 GO" on his Lambo, which I think is pretty cool.

Paul

As is 'W100OWW' on a similar supercar . . .

Watis

Watis wrote:As is 'W100OWW' on a similar supercar . . .

Funny, I initially read that as WIDOW. And, after several attempts to re-educate myself, I still do.

BJ

I think the intended reading of a plate is often in the eye of the owner.
I used to see a car with the plate M 13 UPA with the numbers squashed together to resemble a letter B.
I couldn't decide if it belonged to a member of the private part of the medical profession, or a Nigerian prince looking for somewhere to stash his millions

A friend of mine made a pilgrimage half way across London back in his student days to see PEN 15

https://www.driving.co.uk/news/10-rudes ... ins-roads/

Breelander wrote:A friend of mine made a pilgrimage half way across London back in his student days to see PEN 15

https://www.driving.co.uk/news/10-rudes ... ins-roads/

That car was often in the town where I grew up. First time I saw it was with my mum, not sure who was embarrassed more.

dealtn wrote:

Breelander wrote:A friend of mine made a pilgrimage half way across London back in his student days to see PEN 15

https://www.driving.co.uk/news/10-rudes ... ins-roads/

That car was often in the town where I grew up. First time I saw it was with my mum, not sure who was embarrassed more.

That's a Bury number, I believe.

TJH

tjh290633 wrote:

dealtn wrote:

Breelander wrote:A friend of mine made a pilgrimage half way across London back in his student days to see PEN 15

https://www.driving.co.uk/news/10-rudes ... ins-roads/

That car was often in the town where I grew up. First time I saw it was with my mum, not sure who was embarrassed more.

That's a Bury number, I believe.

TJH

That would be at least 250 miles away from where I was brought up I imagine, though of course a car can travel a long way in 30+ years!

dealtn wrote:

tjh290633 wrote:

dealtn wrote:
That car was often in the town where I grew up. First time I saw it was with my mum, not sure who was embarrassed more.

That's a Bury number, I believe.

TJH

That would be at least 250 miles away from where I was brought up I imagine, though of course a car can travel a long way in 30+ years!

That would have been first issued no later than 1964, I believe. My recollection is that they were at about that level in 1963.

TJH