Registration Numbers Club

Summer Rally 2008

The Registration Numbers Club held its annual summer rally on Sunday 6 July 2008 at the popular Stanford Hall in Leicestershire. A great display of cherished number plates was achieved despite the appalling weather and the prohibitive cost of fuel. Around 65 vehicles arrived on site to take part in a light-hearted competition where members’ registrations were placed into various classes such as Number Ones, Owners’ Initials, Amusing or Unusual Names, Classic Vehicles with Original Number, Collections etc.

Members operate a self voting system to ensure no preferential treatment is given and vote for the registration they think is best in each class. The highest score wins the class with second and third prizes in each class also being awarded. Trophies are presented to these winners and are also awarded to several others including the owner of the oldest registration present and the owner of the vehicle travelling the longest distance to the rally.

Sadly the rain persisted for most of the morning, but by early afternoon the sun came out and the rally site, adjacent to Shakespeare’s river Avon, dried up fairly quickly allowing members to picnic and just generally meet up with old acquaintances and chat with other like minded people about our shared interest. The prize giving commenced around 3.30pm followed by a prize draw with some great items which had all been donated from a variety of sources. Prior to this, a special charity auction was held for a strictly one-off copy of Noel Woodall & Brian Heaton’s latest 2008 publication, Car Numbers - Then and Now, which had been beautifully leather bound and gold foil edged. Brian auctioned this with great vigour and bidding was fast and furious, the book being eventually sold to a long standing club member for £125. The proceeds from this will be donated to the Parkinson’s Disease Society. Sadly Noel, who many will have met at earlier rallies, is now suffering from this debilitating illness. Lloyds TSB will match the amount raised for the charity.

On the previous evening, many club members attended an excellent pre-rally dinner at the Greyhound Coaching Inn & Hotel in the nearby market town of Lutterworth. “Altogether an excellent weekend”, commented many members after the event.

As in previous years, the RNC is indebted to several cherished registration dealers who provided sponsorship in many areas such as the marquee, the rally site costs, the trophies, printing and the special prize draw. Many thanks indeed to you all.

Barn find

Earlier this year a ‘barn find’ Lister Bristol sports racing car came up for sale by H & H Classic Auctions. This car had originally been owned by a mill owning family from my home town of Bury in Lancashire and had actually been initially road registered with the 1955 Bury plate DEN 275. It achieved much racing success in the hands of owner John Horridge before a bad crash put him out of action. The car, which requires a complete renovation, was expected to achieve between £50,000 and £70,000 but eventually sold against fierce bidding for £126,500.

Could you live without your car?

Despite this Government appearing to hate motorists - the high cost of fuel and fuel tax, retrospective increases in road tax, road pricing, congestion charging, etc. - it appears from a recent survey by the AA that most motorists still love driving. 82% of respondents said they still enjoyed being behind the wheel and almost the same amount, 79%, said they could not live without their car. Interestingly just 3% of men and 2% of women stated they would dump their spouse rather than their car. Wow!

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