Almost got busted yesterday!
My boss who is from France keeps pointing out that not only do I have two different style number plates but also from two different regions on my 2CV! He tells me, "You would get busted for that in France!".
I don't know what that is all about. I would suspect the front plate might be the original one registered to the car since it seems correct for that period. Why the rear plate has different numbers from a different region and appears to be a pre-EU style (missing the F and stars) I don't know.
Although I my car is registered and I have a plate for it under the seat, I have yet to mount my American (North American style) plate to the back of the car. One reason is where would you mount it? I'm not going to drill holes in the hatch!
This guy looks like he might have bent the plate at an angle at the bottom to fit the curvature of the body:
On my Trabant is was quite easy. I just used the holes from the European style plate as a reference point to find the center then drilled four holes for the smaller American style plate then plugged the European plate holes off:
Since only half the states in the US issue one number plate (1974 or 1973 was the last year Tennessee issued two number plates) I can stick anything on the front as long as it's not from another US state, expired plate or something vulgar. So I have a decommissioned German plate from Zwickau plate on the front.
I was planning on keeping the rear plate on the 2CV and fabricating some L brackets, drill underneath the bumper and mount the Tennessee plate to the bumper but I think that would look crappy.
Another thing I've seen is people using suction caps in the mounting holes and sticking it in the rear window (still crappy).
So I think I'm going to go with the bent plate route.
Anyway so I was coming home yesterday and pulled in the RH lane at a red light/intersection. I noticed a police car in the left hand lane while waiting for the light to change. I started to get nervous. Chances are if I did get pulled over and showed the policeman my plate, registration and insurance and explained that I had not yet figured out a way to mount it (and show respect!) he wouldn't write me a ticket.
He just drove on by. My guess was:
1) 6:00 and 6:00 is shift change for police officers so he was probably on his way home and didn't care. Off duty cops can still write you tickets or arrest you and have another officer pick you up if they want to. There has been several times I was going 10 miles over the speed limit during this time while going to work and have never got pulled over for speeding.
2) He had bigger fish to fry (or had some fish and chips and wanted to get home before they go soggy!)
3) Thought it was actually registered in another country and had yet to switch the registration over
4) Simply did not care
One time my friend and I were on a road trip and his Fiat X 1/9 was giving him issues and we were broke down on the interstate. His car is a UK spec version. He says he always runs British plates and has never been pulled over in 25 years! He just keeps the Tennessee plate with him.
A state trooper stopped to see if we needed assistance. I figured he would say something about the British plate on the rear but all he said was, "I know what the problem is, the steering wheel is on the wrong side!".