Custom Licence Plates — Seen in the Wild

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
2821

Seeing guys playing race car driver on the freeway in a jacked pickup with off-road tires always makes me think:

The only thing dumber looking than trying to carry a refrigerator in a 2-door convertible sports car is trying to drive 90 in traffic in a pickup truck. Use the right tools for the job.

2822

This morning:

DEWONG1 on a Porsche Macan. My first thought was initials and a last name – “dewong1” sounds like someone’s username or email. But after further thought I guess it could be read as “The wrong one”.

HANNAHT on a Mercedes crossover. Not sure. Is that a name?

DDS TECH on a white unmarked Ford Transit cargo van. If it was on a normal car I’d think dental hygienist, but given the vehicle it was on I’m guessing maybe they sell equipment to dentists.

KLUMSY on a Honda CR-V. Is your clumsiness really something you want to advertise when you’re behind the wheel?

2823

It might be Hannah T. For some woman whose given name is Hannah and whose surname starts with T.

But I rather think it’s someone professing their undying allegiance to Sean Hannity the RW propaganda blowhard. Or maybe somebody who unfortunately shares the same last name as that animal.

2824

GRIFFET on some forgettable crossover, I think a Lexus. I can’t decode that one.

WECAMPY on a Ram Promaster van with a Winnebago camper conversion. #vanlife

2825

Scored a few over the last day-ish. Only one sort of fun example.

  • CAPY⎵BAR on a FL 7-character state parks booster plate on a family wagon. Evidently they’re fans of rodents of unusual size.
  • JOBOS on a FL 5-character surfing booster plate on a BMW iX midsize EV SUV. Probably “Jobo’s” where “Jobo” is either their nickname, or short for Joe(seph) Bo(… whatever).
  • STLBB on a FL 5-character Disney World booster plate on a family wagon with other Disney stickers. Maybe Mom the driver was a “Saint Louis Baby”?
  • MKIV on a FL 5-character surfer booster plate on a pickup truck. He’s MK the fourth? Mickey V?
2826

Or, they’re a big fan of the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball team.

2827

I would read that as “Mark Four”, as in the fourth version of something, since that often gets abbreviated “Mk. IV”. Not sure what it would refer to in this context, though – there have been several cars with Mk. IV in their name, including a Jaguar, a Lincoln Continental, and a Triumph. And it was a British Tank. Wikipedia has a whole list:

Hmm… on that list is a Mark IV Monorail, which was used at Disney World. So maybe something to do with that?

2828

Good ideas. I’d considered “Mark 4” as in version 4 of [whatever] but rejected it for lack of specificity and relevance to surfing or pickup trucks. Had the plate been on an old Lincoln that’d have been different.

Still and all, you may well be right.

2829

And I just realized I conflated the MKIV plate with the Disney plate mentioned above it. So maybe the Disney monorail isn’t as relevent as I thought.

2830

I was curious when the Mark IV was made (answer: 1972-1976, at the end of the true gas-guzzler era).

This is a '73 Mark IV. You could probably land a Cessna on that hood. :wink:

2831

This reminds me of a family vacation to Europe in my childhood around that time, 1973. The cars in Europe were all short and micro compacts. They looked almost comical to my 12 year old eyeballs.

I got so used to seeing them that when we flew home and saw all the American cars driving around at JFK airport in NYC that I knew so well, they all looked…

sooooooo verrrrrrrry looooooooong.

2832

Several today that I can’t figure out:

WHC 888 and yes, I looked carefully, it really was a vanity plate

DUTTY RT Dirty rat?

ITS 383

S4BR

2833

Saber/sabre or “sabr.”

Several possibilities:

  • Member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), a group of baseball stats geeks and historians. “Sabermetrics,” the term for advanced baseball statistics, takes its name from SABR.
  • A Muslim; “sabr” is an element of Islamic faith, meaning “perseverance” or “persistence.”
  • If it’s for “saber” or “sabre,” could be a fencer, a Star Wars fan, or a travel agent (Sabre is the name of a big travel reservation system).
2834

Those were my high school years. The guy across the street from my house had one of those. With vinyl roof for extra style points. His was a blasé tan, not that bitchin’ blue.

So cool.

2835

Knowing anything about the car, the plate frame, any stickers, can help us figure stuff out.

E.g “383” is the displacement of a famous Dodge/Chrysler performance engine. On the right kind of car, “ITS 383” can mean “It’s a 383” AKA hotrod. On a Toyota? Not so much.

2836

And they probably found it comical that Americans were driving cars with so much non-functional length (I’m sure there’s a ridiculous amount of empty space under that hood), and probably getting like 8 mpg.

2837

MAMAS 95

SUBUBU 1 on a Subaru

2838

To be fair, generally speaking the city and town streets in the US are much wider and straighter than you typically find in Europe. But yes, there used to be a massive amount of clear space inside the engine bays of American cars. A ridiculous amount, as you put it, yes. Especially when compared with today’s cars. But that was 50 some-odd years ago.

2839

MAW FLEX. No idea what that is about.

2840

Once you make a gigantic passenger compartment for 6 adults and gigantic trunk for luggage for 6, you sorta need a huge engine compartment/ hood / front end for stylistic balance.

The entire reason for the current popularity of pickup trucks used as ordinary passenger vehicles is those are the only vehicles able, by law, to offer 1970s sized passenger compartments.

Which 2020-sized Americans mostly need for their vast bulk.