Lawrence Miceli wrote:
Well, the 2000 Estate wagon is here!! The car is in great
shape, with all
of it's original paperwork, tools, and even the original
British license
plate. The registration number was " QL 3294" does this mean
anything to
anyone.
Sorry Larry, the licence plate isn't original. What we
call Q plates (at the time your car was authorised to wear
them) indicates it had probably been first licensed
elsewhere outside the UK and was re-imported. It would have
been allocated a Q plate because the original licence
documentation had either been lost or was insufficient to
allocate it what is known as an 'age related' registration.
So how could this happen? Either it originally belonged to a
diplomat or was used with a UK Forces licence plate as found
in those days in Germany. Maybe they're still in use? Sorry
to disappoint you, but this licence isn't original. It's my
guess the car was originally supplied under the Standard
Triumph personal export scheme in which case it would have
had a Coventry licence - and that isn't a Q plate. Best way
to validate if it was PE is to invest $40 with Heritage
Motor Centre for a Heritage Certificate. If it was licenced
at Coventry prior to initial delivery, the Heritage
Certificate will tell you what it was.
If a Heritage Cert doesn't provide the info you seek, then
the only other avenues are that it was built outside the UK
and imported with someone's personal effects or it was a UK
domestic car that somehow went abroad for a while. Is it
left or right hand steer?
You were also recommended by Ian Viles to check out
http://www.toolbox.ndirect.co.uk/plates
I put up that website and it describes the UK licensing
system with particular emphasis on coventry numbers - no
other
Jonmac
PS Posting to the list as my reply to your address bounced
back
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