The illegals – TIL 121

It’s taken weeks to catch this one.

Although it lives nearby, unfortunately, that also mean it’s somewhere I seldom pass with a camera, and luck was not on my side either. Whenever I did make the effort and take one with me, of course, the plate was never at home, until last night.

TIL 121 lives as an illegally spaced plate on a stinky diesel, in this case a white 2022 Range Rover Evoque.

The illegals – AL61 ERS

Unfortunately, I was only able to spy this one as my bus sped past it, but it was EASY to remember.

While I usually hint at anyone with illegal plates getting what they deserve if they are spotted and fined, or fail an MOT/VOSA inspection, this one looks so good I’d be tempted to cut them some slack.

I could mention the vehicle, but since the bus was going too fast (and it was just another hulking anonymous SUV lump), and it might change, I’ll let you look it up if you care that much.

In the old days, before they (supposedly) tightened the rules on plate mounting, a white (or yellow) capped fixing would have been used to secure this plate to the vehicle, located on the central horizontal stroke of the 6. That trick’s no longer allowed, and could result in a fine, or MOT fail.

This one reminded of a long forgotten plate seen many years ago, in Ayr (but not related), which was an almost perfect rendering of the name McGowan.

I always meant to try to track it down, but didn’t get a chance to see the letters and numbers that made it up, having only managed to catch the briefest of glances as the gate leading to customer pickups slammed shut in front of it.

21 L is just… nice

Believe it or not, it’s taken from 2017 for this pic to bubble up and get used.

Where does the time go?

It’s kind of nice to see this 2016 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque has been sporting 21 L (and probably did since new, a year earlier than the pic), as it’s no secret I dislike the habit of many of my past colleagues to dump their cars as soon as they can, and get the next new one under their business leases.

2016 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque [21 L]

I still think of the Evoque as being one of the motoring industries ‘surprises’, like the Vauxhall Calibra.

Both share the phenomenon of being seen early in their development as ‘concept cars’, a class of vehicle normally noted for NOT arriving on the market looking much like their concepts.

But those two did.

I’m sure there were others (NOT counting suprcars), but I don’t remember them.

I always recall the motoring press of the day dismissing Vauxhall’s promise to deliver the Calibra looking little different from the concept – while it may not look impressive or ‘different’ today, back in its day the styling was VERY different to the norm, and the hacks simply didn’t believe it would be delivered looking much like the concept, and they didn’t have much to say when it arrived and proved their doubts unfounded.