Woodward 2009: License plates - They're the original Twitter!
Woodward license plates - Click above for high-res image gallery
These days, Twitter is all the rage as a means for the digitally inclined to communicate their thoughts in bursts of 140 characters or less. However, that 140 character limit is positively verbose compared to an older and more established means of short messaging. Drivers long ago realized that certain combinations of letters and numbers could be used to send messages in less than seven characters. One of this blogger's all time favorites was a classic Lamborghini Countach with the plate IXLR8.
While that particular Lambo didn't appear at this year's Woodward festivities, there were plenty of other interesting messages sent out. As far as we're concerned, the best plates are the ones that don't take too much brain power to decipher. Sometimes, the license plate phrase reinforces something about the car's behavior – such as the FASSST plate on one Cobra. Other times, drivers use onomatopoeia like the BRMBRUM plate on another Shelby snake. Still others, such as the LVNGLYF plate we saw on a Lotus Elise, are more descriptive of the car's driver. Check out our entire gallery below of interesting plates from the 2009 Woodward Dream Cruise.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
adelossa 1:03AM (8/17/2009)
*sees this opportunity to post his vanity plate*
"ALT-F4"
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MercOn4s 7:55AM (8/17/2009)
i just got my plate in after the long wait. plate reads SHW-OFF
asyed 1:58PM (8/17/2009)
accidentally hits Alt-F4
Tony C 10:34AM (8/17/2009)
I'd think license plates would be the original text message, not Twitter.
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Erik 3:14PM (8/17/2009)
Do you guys have any more pics of that DTS covertible? Looks awesome...
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Chris 10:23AM (8/20/2009)
Would anyone care to explain Number 17? (UDWTMWM)
Thanks in advance~
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littletee 7:42AM (9/24/2009)
Interesting comparison you make. Never really thought about it but you are correct. In the UK we called them private number plates or personalised number plates. I quite fancy this one (as I run my own company) - http://www.capeplates.co.uk/search/mixed-search-8oss/
Slightly out of my price range though!
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