New Year’s Nostalgia On a Plate

Nowadays new year occurs twice a year. Not so very long ago, okay 1998, it happened only once, in September.

Before that, until 1997, it occurred once a year, in August, but it hasn’t occurred on 1st January since 1967.

What am I talking about?
Year signification on English, welsh and Scottish vehicle registration plates.

It has been 54 years since vehicle registration number nerds donned duffle coats for first sight of the fresh crop of new year, new year plates.
Of course, back in 1967, the 1st of January wasn’t a bank holiday, meaning plenty of road action for spotters.

The first summer of love was shaping up in London, but not in Middlesbrough, and the ‘winter of discontent’ was over a decade away, by which time 1967’s ‘E’ suffix registered cars were largely the stuff of memories.
Now, it’s been nearly three decades since The Shamen’s ‘Ebeneezer Goode’ was in the pop charts, and to (almost) paraphrase that particular hit record, E’s are good, if you like a bit of rarity.

The 1967 ‘E’ suffix period is a small window, containing an amazing array of fantastic machines from a time when the whole world was changing immeasurably.

Feel it, buy it, drive it.

- Fuzz t