Show plates are specially designed, fully customised number plates. They are a cheap and easy way of adding some style to your vehicle. There are countless other ways to customise your vehicle, such as alloys, body kits, tinted glass and interior modifications, but generally number plates get overlooked.
With a huge variety of colours, styles and logos you can create a custom number show plate truly unique to your own personality and something which gets heads turning!
One thing to bear in mind is that custom show plates are not road legal. They are for decorative purposes only and are very popular at car shows, however you can still design and purchase legal show plates (in fact we sell them!), and while they must adhere to strict rules set by the DVLA regarding spacing and readability they still look great on any vehicle.
Custom Show Plates for Your Car
Whether you show your car at events across the country or you have created a display area in your garage where your friends and relatives can admire it, the addition of custom plates could add a real touch of class to your pride and joy. While there are a number of restrictions on what you can and cannot have on a road-legal registration plate, custom show plates give you the freedom to really let your imagination run wild and to use eye-catching designs that complement the colour and classic lines of your prized motor vehicle.
What Can You Do with Custom Show Plates?
While you cannot use them on the road, there are a number of applications for custom-designed number plates that make them a desirable purchase for motoring enthusiasts:
- Showing at Major Events – If you regularly show your vehicle at major events in the United Kingdom and abroad, the addition of custom plates will help to ensure that it catches the attention of judges when competing in categories where they may be a number of pristine examples of the very same make and model.
- Making a Sale – While plates designed specifically for shows cannot be used on the road, they could be temporarily affixed to a vehicle in a car showroom, to attract the attention of prospective buyers. With so many cars to choose from, plates that add personality to a vehicle can really help to draw attention to its aesthetic appeal.
- Promoting a Brand – Commercial organisations in the motor trade often use custom-style plates to advertise the products and services they provide. If, for example, your company manufactures a range of high quality car waxes, signage in the form of custom registration plates could be an excellent way to draw attention to your range and attract local customers in the process.
- Decoration – If you are a real motoring enthusiast, there is nothing to stop you from having a customised plate printed with any wording and colour scheme you desire, for display in your house or flat. Whether you create a custom stand on which to place it or affix it to one of your walls, it is sure to become a talking point among visitors to your home.
- Enhance the Appearance of Motorcycles, Boats and Other Vehicles – As long as you are not using the vehicles in question on public land or highways, there is no reason you have to limit yourself to cars: motorcycles, speedboats, quad bikes, and scooters are just a few of the vehicles that can be instantly customised with the addition of special number plates.
Road Legal Custom Plates
While it is possible to customise road-legal plates to a certain degree, there are, as mentioned above, a number of restrictions that need to be borne in mind at the design stage.
- Reflective – Road plates must be manufactured from a reflective material to ensure they are easy to read in all lighting and weather conditions.
- White and Yellow Backgrounds – Front plates must have a white background while yellow is the specified background colour for rear plates.
- Black Letters and Numbers – Black is the only colour that is allowed for the numbers and letters that make up the registration of your vehicle.
- Specific Character Dimensions – There are very specific requirements regarding the dimensions of the font used on plates designed for use on public roads in the United Kingdom, which you can find by following the link above. The main ones to bear in mind are that the characters should all be 79mm tall and, with the exception of the letter ‘I’ and the number ‘1’, should all be 50mm wide. You will also find spacing and margin specifications by following the link.
- EU/GB Symbol – For motorists who frequently travel abroad, the addition of an EU/GB symbol on the left-hand side of the registration plate does away with the need to purchase and affix a GB sticker when travelling on the Continent. The entire symbol must be at least 98mm tall and from 40mm to 50mm wide.
What Customisations Are Allowed for Road Legal Plates?
Given the stringent specifications, you may be forgiven for thinking you have no choice at all when it comes to the design of registration plates you intend to use on the road but you would be mistaken. The following customisations are all allowed:
- 3D Lettering – There is a road legal 3D font that you can use to differentiate your plates from the standard flat font varieties commonly in use.
- Carbon – A legal carbon fibre-style font is also available and is an excellent way to add a touch of class to prestige sports cars that are used on public highways.
- HiLine – A legal HiLine font is another alternative that is quite eye-catching. Hi-Line characters are basically the same as the standard font but with the addition of a lighter line, highlighting the middle of each character.
- Personalised Registrations – The DVLA has millions of unused registration numbers that it held back owing to the demand for certain combinations of letters and numbers, and these have been available to purchase since 1989. If you are looking for a certain combination of letters and numbers that is meaningful to you, it is well worth checking to see if they are available. The cost of personalised registrations includes the assignment fee, which allows you to use them with your car. Once you have the registration, you can of course have a new number plate made with the font customisations mentioned above. Click here to search the DVLA website for your perfect personalised registration number
Restrictions on Show Plates
Apart from the obvious legal restriction – they cannot be used on vehicles that are driven on public land or highways unless they are created with Legal Spacing (as opposed to Custom Spacing) and Legal options - the only real limits to what you can do with custom plates designed for show are your imagination. For further information or clarification, please do not hesitate to call our customer support number between 10am and 10pm.