Rally Plates

Does anybody on here collect rally plates ? I am talking about the light metal variety with the crescent shape on top and rectangular lower section with the corners rounded. Usually on front and rear of cars with door number on them. The reason I ask is to enquire as to whether there is a trade in replica plates I have come across a plate that is incorrectly identified and the ebay seller is giving no guarantees as to what it is but feigning a kind of ignorance in his description. What are replica plates costing ?
Just wondering if its a con - as they say if it looks too good to be true then it is too good to be true.

James - contact Gerardwrm (Gerard World Rally Museum) on this forum - he has lots of rally plates and may be able to advise.

I am allowing my heart rule my head on this one. Fingers crossed. Gerard does not buy them as a rule and neither have i but thanks for the pointer. However if this does come my way some of you will understand. Fools and their money are easily parted etc.

Fingers crossed for you!

Ps if you go to www.prs17495.demon.co.uk they have genuine plates for sale and for a recognisable driver and event like Toivonens 1981 Acropolis Rally Sunbeam go for about £400

Cloak and dagger over - bought what purports to be the rally plate for car #10 on the 1987 Tour de Corse. Promised a COA that it came from Prodrive etc - seller in Banbury , deals in a lot of that type of ex Prodrive memorabilia. Problem was as soon as I spotted this item I opened the thread here and left myself prescious little time to do any checking. Will fit in with my 1/43 M3 collection which at this stage is north of 200 models.

It will join the Rothmans plates belonging to Saeed Al Hajiri's Ford Bronco and a few from cars I have sat in , in a very small collection. Problem is my small collections grow !!!

Real or fake ?

James

Possibly, its not the rear plate as that was fixed on with 4 rivets. See page 445 in the big Rally Cars book for a colour rear photo. The Bastos car on p444 is from 1988 so dont panic as it has the makers name in red bottom right on that one.

So it has to be the front one. But with no holes and the photos showing no tape, how was it fixed on the bonnet? Was it stuck on with sticky pads on the back. Some other cars appear to be the same though.

Chris

Just had a look at the link Paul put up http://www.prs17495.demon.co.uk/

Thats Laurence Edcer he is ALWAYS expensive. Which is why he has stuff for ages!! But if you need to have it thats the price - where else are you going to find it?

He brought a load of stuff from Ilka Kivimaki a while back.

Chris

Close inspection of the photo shows very tiny possibly rivet holes top and bottom of the plate.
That Kivimaki stuff has been up for ages. Every now and again he halves the price and it still doesn't sell.

If it's not genuine, it's a very good replica. Will look nice among your M3 mountain.

I have about 40 plates, but I've only bought one which the #4 plate from the 1987 Rallye du Var. I didn't have a smartphone at the time so couldn't check who it had belonged to. Also the French were reluctant to use #4 after Toivonen's fatal accident so it could well have been unused. I gambled, brought it home and found #4 was a certain Didier Auriol.

My eldest plates are metal ones dating from 1967, dad's first rallies. I also have a few 70s Monte Carlo service plates (they weren't red, it was a different colour each year) and more from Portugal, Germany, Bulgaria, Catalunya, ... wherever dad was went to. Unfortunately he didn't bring one back from the Québec WRC round, and no trace of a plate when he ran management service for an Irish driver in a Nova, a bloke called Roche. He was apparently pretty good on two wheels.

dear all ,, as said before i have more as 100 rallyplates from the WRC events on the wall of my museum ,

most of them i got from Drivers , Media people and team's

sometimes i buy one but alone as a rally corner is emty .. ( Rally Japan )

today most off the plates are stickers so difficult to lose from the cars whithout dammage

Juha wrote:If it's not genuine, it's a very good replica. Will look nice among your M3 mountain.

I have about 40 plates, but I've only bought one which the #4 plate from the 1987 Rallye du Var. I didn't have a smartphone at the time so couldn't check who it had belonged to. Also the French were reluctant to use #4 after Toivonen's fatal accident so it could well have been unused. I gambled, brought it home and found #4 was a certain Didier Auriol.

My eldest plates are metal ones dating from 1967, dad's first rallies. I also have a few 70s Monte Carlo service plates (they weren't red, it was a different colour each year) and more from Portugal, Germany, Bulgaria, Catalunya, ... wherever dad was went to. Unfortunately he didn't bring one back from the Québec WRC round, and no trace of a plate when he ran management service for an Irish driver in a Nova, a bloke called Roche. He was apparently pretty good on two wheels.

............I take it that guy was Stephen Roche in a Nova Juha

That's the one. Retired after an off.

Ring the phone no on the bottom of the plate! If it's a french number it could be real!

RORY O CONNOR wrote:Ring the phone no on the bottom of the plate! If it's a french number it could be real!

The number is real alright. My fear was that some enterprising entrepreneur was mass producing replicas as is happening with other plates. Now that i have it in my hand i have myself convinced that its the real deal:lol:

Happy days!

One of the fringe benefits of the Circuit Deja Vu event in killarney was meeting Bernard Beguin. He brought a present for Conor Falvey, whose 911 he drove. I sit with Conor in that car on European Historic events. The present turned out to be one of a handful of replica plates just like this one , that he was presented with for winning the Tour De Corse. To say he was surprised was an understatement when Conor told him that I had one already. The real kicker was when he was able to confirm that mine was the original that had been on the car !!!!

What a great outcome for you!

James

Excellent result!!

Chris

A nice one to have in your collection James, and it's always nice to find that what you've bought is actually what you thought you were buying!

JOB wrote:One of the fringe benefits of the Circuit Deja Vu event in killarney was meeting Bernard Beguin. He brought a present for Conor Falvey, whose 911 he drove. I sit with Conor in that car on European Historic events. The present turned out to be one of a handful of replica plates just like this one , that he was presented with for winning the Tour De Corse. To say he was surprised was an understatement when Conor told him that I had one already. The real kicker was when he was able to confirm that mine was the original that had been on the car !!!!

Finish the story James...................AND.......look back at the photo you origionall put up here when you got the plate first........look closely at the l/h/s of the NO. 10..........re the Autograph............now finish the story

turn the wheel wrote:

JOB wrote:One of the fringe benefits of the Circuit Deja Vu event in killarney was meeting Bernard Beguin. He brought a present for Conor Falvey, whose 911 he drove. I sit with Conor in that car on European Historic events. The present turned out to be one of a handful of replica plates just like this one , that he was presented with for winning the Tour De Corse. To say he was surprised was an understatement when Conor told him that I had one already. The real kicker was when he was able to confirm that mine was the original that had been on the car !!!!

Finish the story James...................AND.......look back at the photo you origionall put up here when you got the plate first........look closely at the l/h/s of the NO. 10..........re the Autograph............now finish the story

Just saw this thread again . What Donie is referring to above is the fact that Bernard Beguin picked up the plate and told me to look closely at it at a particular angle to the light. What I thought was a brown smudge he said was his autograph ! I got him to autograph it a second time on the other side. Whats interesting is that Mr Beguin (Bernard sounds too forward) said he had 5 replicas. So when added to the two originals we are talking 7 plates in total. Conor received one which Denis Cronin now has with the car, a guy on facebook who goes under the name Rally Plates has one and I managed to pick up another one on ebay recently so I have 2. So that 4 accounted for. Not sure how many Mr Beguin still has.