Hello all
This thread got me curious so I just looked up the widths of the earliest and latest "Plus 8s". There is quite a difference between the two at 291mm, for you older Plus 8 owners that's nearly a foot!
Of course keeping things in perspective even the latest Plus 8s are still approx 5mm (nearly 2 inches in your older Plus 8s money) narrower than a Mk7 Golf, so I don't think us newer types will quite be excluded from narrow lanes yet!