Old License Plates

Hello-

I an a new speedster owner, I receive my car in about 4 more weeks and I have a question about license plates. I see a lot of speedsters that have older california plates on them and would like to do that for my speedster. The state of california has this guideline:

THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA allows cars and trucks of model year 1962 and earlier* to be registered, street-legal, with original license plates corresponding to the model year of the vehicle. This is known as the "YOM" (Year of Manufacture) program.

Does anyone know if this pertains to

Robert,
You can do it if your speedster is pan-based and a 62 or earlier pan is used. The plates can be found regularly on ebay for around 150-250 dollars for nice pairs.

Thx Tom.

If it doesn't have an old pan you can't legally do it. But, I have had original 1956 plates on my Spyder ever since I built it in 2001 and have never been pulled over for it. I do carry the real plates in the car and if I was pulled over I have a build-in excuse - I was just at a show/autocross and forgot to change the plates, sorry...

I however am ready to pay the fine, if there is one, for failing to run the real plates. Frankly I doubt that an officer would give me a ticket for that as long as I wasn't being a jerk. I would however get the speeding ticket if I was speeding and he may tag on some extras if I was an a$$ or drunk, etc. I find that if you're nice people treat you better and if I deserve a speeding ticket than that's just the way it is.

Robert, as a retired cop, I can say that attitude really does count but, You're always going to come up against an officer that chooses to enforce the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law.

If that does happen, then excuses such as "I forgot to swap the plate" don't work. In many cases such as this, the driver and the car will go to jail.

In closing, if you break the law then be prepared to pay the consequences, this may be a fine, imprisonment or lethal injection :)

(Ok I was just kidding about the lethal injection)

That makes sense to me Larry. I agree that if you break the law you have to be willing to pay the price.