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YYS4BOB wrote:Alpha suffix plates were introduced in 1963, so would have expected the Daimler plate to end in an "A", also would be letter letter letter number (up to 3 off) letter format i.e. AAA 123A. A transferred plate from an older vehicle is my assumption.

Could be a transfer, but year letters weren’t obligatory until C in 1965. I don’t think many places had run out of numbers, so there were never many A registration cars around. I think many A registrations are on older cars from which the original number was sold, once this became easy - they were given an A to stop the owner selling the new number.

YYS4BOB wrote:Alpha suffix plates were introduced in 1963, so would have expected the Daimler plate to end in an "A", also would be letter letter letter number (up to 3 off) letter format i.e. AAA 123A. A transferred plate from an older vehicle is my assumption.

While this is true, I believe the “A” Plate came quite late in 1963. Registration numbers without year letter did not become compulsory until 1964 meaning some areas still issued plates without the year letter throughout 1963.

Rod

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_r ... ed_Kingdom
1963 to 1982
In August 1962, an attempt was made to create a national scheme to alleviate the problem of registrations running out. This used the scheme introduced in 1932, of a three-letter combination followed by a sequence number from 1 to 999, but also added a letter suffix, which initially changed on 1 January each year. An "A" suffix was thus used for 1963, "B" for 1964, etc. Middlesex was the first authority to adopt this scheme when it issued AHX 1A in February 1963.[34] Most other areas followed suit during 1964, but some chose to stick to their own schemes up until 1 January 1965, when the letter suffix was made compulsory.

Keep that camera going Gary It's great to see these historic vehicles and to find out a bit about their history.

zBret

I only checked DVLA, not Wiki. Thanks for taking the time to present the extra info.

Well thank you for mentioning about the registration plates Bob. It's all quite interesting and I enjoyed learning about it and finding the info.

zBret

The Hillman Hawk has the look of the Ford Popular. But, while the Ford Popular (not produced until 1953) was a car purposely designed to look and be like used cars of its time, the Hillman 20, dating from the 1930s, would seem to be one of the genuine prototype used cars on which it was based. Though Ford also had a Y Type car which had the name "Popular" sometimes associated with it, and that clearly would be a more direct technological predecessor.

SportWagon wrote:The Hillman Hawk has the look of the Ford Popular. But, while the Ford Popular (not produced until 1953) was a car purposely designed to look and be like used cars of its time, the Hillman 20, dating from the 1930s, would seem to be one of the genuine prototype used cars on which it was based. Though Ford also had a Y Type car which had the name "Popular" sometimes associated with it, and that clearly would be a more direct technological predecessor.

The Ford Popular was simply a continuation of the previous generation Ford Anglia, sold alongside the then new Anglia at a cheaper price.

My first ever Ford Popular picture, taken in Athens in 1981:



Amazing to think that when I took this picture, the car was much younger than the picture is now.

A teazer for z Bret
No. plate UCG 130
Austin light blue

while out at the flea market today

PS im the one in the orange shirt