Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Registration plates

When I had my American car, I used to carry around a printout of a certain section of the UK registration plate legislation, with a letter drafted by a Mustang owner who was also a solicitor. The letter explained the legislation, in polite but simple terms, and was supposed to help 'get out of a fine' if stopped by the police.

As I sold my Mustang many moons ago, I no longer have either; however, if I recall correctly, the gist of it (and given this was for cars) was that there is an exemption of the vehicle was never designed to have a front plate. Obviously cars that are Euro compliant are required by law to be be built with this in mind but cars from the USA were different. I never had to use it but quite a few owners did and either the officer was 'blinded by solicitor' speak, or simply couldn't be bothered to read the document, so ended up letting the chaps go without a fine.

Whatever the case, I raise this point because I would question whether the police would look at the M3W, see that it was designed to wear a front plate and therefore fine you accordingly if you were without?

In Belgium the 3 wheeler is registered as a Motorbike (actually a "Tricycle a moteur", which falls under Motorbikes), so it gets a different size and shape of number plate to a car, and starts with the letter "M". It's pretty clear and I haven't had a problem not having a front plate (a front plate is not required for bikes).

However, you make a good point in your post, and it has spurred me to remove the blank front plate, which I kept meaning to do but never got around to (you never know, removing it might improve aerodynamics too ).

What happens if you travel to another country - do the "rules" of the country of registration still apply, or do you need to comply with local legislation? I assume local legislation wins, since UK cars travelling through France need to comply with French rules regarding the warning triangle, hi-viz vests, etc, but how far does this go?

As far as I know, the rules about what you carry, ie warning triangles, spare bulbs, reflective jackets etc are country specific. So any car in a country has to have those bits and bobs as laid down in its own legislation.

Rules about construction, ie size and number of registration plates apply as per the country of registration. If you don't have a front numberplate in the home country, you'd not need one the country you are visiting.

Extreme case that I think is legal, you could visit from the USA with a red flashing light at the rear for an indicator and be legal as a visitor (it would not be legal if you registered it here though).