[Tr4]

Not for speeding though. At least the officer was nice enough to give only a verbal warning for not having a front license plate. He asked more questions about the car than most people I have talked to.

A long time ago when I got on here a lot someone posted a letter or something that said something to the effect the Elise was exempt? or something to that effect from having a front license plate due to air flow or something like that.

Does anyone know where I can find that and print it out? OR how are you attaching it (the plate) to the car? :shrug:

 

[Vampyre]

Sounds great... but I doubt it is true, the 2005 and 2006 were exempt from having bumperettes

 

[Demonized]

Sounds great... but I doubt it is true, the 2005 and 2006 were exempt from having bumperettes

hm, maybe if the car doesn't technically have bumpers, there is nothing structural to found the front license plate to?

 

[Tr4]

I just told him an excuse I read on here a LONG time ago about how the bracket for the plate was back-ordered from England and would be months if I even got it at all

I just searched on here too which I probably should have done before (but oh well) and there is a bill supposedly in Congress now or somewhere trying to make a front plate not mandatory..

Personally I think he just wanted an excuse to look at the car. Not real sure where I could put the plate so he doesn't hassle me in the future.

 

[serpent]

velcro?


in MD, Scrumpot has fought and won the no front plate argument. Dont know how that will help you since your in TX

 

[Tr4]

Thinking about just putting in on the dash till I figure something out.

 

[tesprit]

I ended up taking the original license plate bracket from Lotus, cutting the studs off of it, covering the back with thin self adhesive neoprene, and adhering some very strong magnets to the face of the bracket with double stick mounting tape. I then removed the aluminum filler piece from under the nose of the front clam, affixed another set of the same magnets to the lower lip face using the double stick tape and these attract the plate bracket magnets to hold the bracket and plate to the front of the lower clam. The magnets are rated at 17 lbs. pull each and I have run the magnetized plate up to 100 mph on the front of my car without it moving at all. The nice thing is that I can simply pull the bracket/plate off the clam whenever I want and it leaves no signs that it was ever attached. If you want I can post some photos of this easy way to attach/detach your front plate.

 

[xceed]

I ended up taking the original license plate bracket from Lotus, cutting the studs off of it, covering the back with thin self adhesive neoprene, and adhering some very strong magnets to the face of the bracket with double stick mounting tape. I then removed the aluminum filler piece from under the nose of the front clam, affixed another set of the same magnets to the lower lip face using the double stick tape and these attract the plate bracket magnets to hold the bracket and plate to the front of the lower clam. The magnets are rated at 17 lbs. pull each and I have run the magnetized plate up to 100 mph on the front of my car without it moving at all. The nice thing is that I can simply pull the bracket/plate off the clam whenever I want and it leaves no signs that it was ever attached. If you want I can post some photos of this easy way to attach/detach your front plate.

What the.. DO SHOW PLEZ!

 

[tesprit]

What the.. DO SHOW PLEZ!

OK, I'll take some photos of it tonight when I get home from work.

 

[SirLotus]

What are front plates :shrug:

 

[agirls]

lol, I'm with you Viper. I've been pulled over 3 times in the last year, ticketed twice (not for plates), and they never even looked at the front of the car. I'm sure I'll get a ticket at some point probably when it's parked, lol. I'll just pay the ticket unless I start to collect them. I do have the bracket though and the magnet idea is a great one! I'd probably bend the plate like a few other members have done and use the magnets.

 

[steuspeed]

I ended up taking the original license plate bracket from Lotus, cutting the studs off of it, covering the back with thin self adhesive neoprene, and adhering some very strong magnets to the face of the bracket with double stick mounting tape. I then removed the aluminum filler piece from under the nose of the front clam, affixed another set of the same magnets to the lower lip face using the double stick tape and these attract the plate bracket magnets to hold the bracket and plate to the front of the lower clam. The magnets are rated at 17 lbs. pull each and I have run the magnetized plate up to 100 mph on the front of my car without it moving at all. The nice thing is that I can simply pull the bracket/plate off the clam whenever I want and it leaves no signs that it was ever attached. If you want I can post some photos of this easy way to attach/detach your front plate.

Great idea! :up:

 

[SirLotus]

I guess I meant that in my State, no front plate is required. If I was such a State I would definitely do Tesprit's mod.
Michael

lol, I'm with you Viper. I've been pulled over 3 times in the last year, ticketed twice (not for plates), and they never even looked at the front of the car. I'm sure I'll get a ticket at some point probably when it's parked, lol. I'll just pay the ticket unless I start to collect them. I do have the bracket though and the magnet idea is a great one! I'd probably bend the plate like a few other members have done and use the magnets.

 

[agirls]

I thought it was a federal DOT rule that you had to have a front and rear plate. I know nothing though.

 

[Porcupine]

If im ever pulled over for having no front plate i'll just pay the fine and keep the plate off. It ruins the looks of the car and the first thing I did after buying it was remove the plate bracket. Fortunately i've never been ticketed for this. I've gotten speeding tickets, warnings for other things, and i've had cops standing directly in front of the vehicle as it's parked at a gas station looking at it but never even had one mention no front plate. Guess im lucky

 

[tesprit]

OK, I'll take some photos of it tonight when I get home from work.

OK, here are some photos of my front plate bracket held on with magnets. To make this you need the OEM front plate bracket that came with your car from Lotus and you need to saw off the mounting studs (no holes to be drilled in the clam!). Now line the side that fits up to the plinth on the lower lip of the clam with some sticky backed neoprene foam ($1 from your local craft store) so it looks like this:

Now turn it over and attach your magnets (I used 5 rare earth neodymium magnets from eBay - $12 for 10) using 3M double side sticky mounting tape:

Next you need to get under the nose of the car and remove the aluminum filler panel that fits between the frame and the lower lip of the clam. Once you have this panel out you can access the back side of the plinth on the lower lip of the clam and attach the rest of the magnets you bought in the same pattern as the ones you mounted to the plate bracket. the easiest way to do this is to hold the bracket on the front of the plinth where you want it to be located and reach in behind the plinth with the magnet with sticky tape applied and let it position itself to the corresponding magnet on the bracket. These magnets naturally align themselves with each other so as long as you don't get too close to the wrong magnet it is pretty easy. Once you have them all attached in the right place, replace the filler panel and you are done. You can then pull off or replace the bracket as needed as shown in these photos:

The only problems I have had with this arrangement is when tossing the license plate/bracket in the trunk of the car, anything made of ferrous metal back there will attach itself to the bracket. I suppose the same applies to the nose of the car, but I haven't has any trouble with that. The only other thing is that this won't work on an Exige.

 

[Hello Kitty]

The plinth of the front diffuser is about 2 inches high, and a plate is about 5 inches high....

So cut off the top 1.5 inches, and cut off the bottom 1.5 inches from the plate, and just mount just the numbers. Everyone is happy.

 

[Amarao]

I've run without front plates for the longest time and never been bothered. I might have just jinxed myself there...

I'd still rather pay the ticket than put a front plate on though.

 

[5qf3764b]

What city was it? BTW there is no exemption in Texas according to my cop buddy in NRH.

 

[RoadDad]

Sounds great... but I doubt it is true, the 2005 and 2006 were exempt from having bumperettes

There are about one hundred 2007 model year "lauch cars" (manufactured prior to Jan 07 when the exemption ran out) that also have the bumper exemption and no bumperettes. I know because I have one :nanner:.