Jump to content

How far from the UK have you seen a UK-registered car?


chaseracer

Recommended Posts

Unsurprisingly there are hundreds of them round here, mostly used in various states of illegality.

 

If you ever find yourself at Carcassonne airport with time on your hands (there is fuck-all else to do there and its miles from the city) have a wander round the carpark. There is always a selection of long-abandoned UK registered chod with flat tyres, moss growing under them and hundreds of sun-bleached flyers under the wipers.

I also saw this a few years back....

 

DSC00328.jpg

 

Someone would have got a nasty surprise when they got off their plane.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Walking past Sainsburys in Stafford, was confronted - the only word for something that size - by a Lincoln Navigator on Montana plates.

 

Observed to the driver that he may have taken a wrong turn at the stoplight in Missoula and, instead of the expected laconic drawled response, got a Potteries chuckle with the explanation; he and the missis had lived & worked in the US and liked their super-Expedition so much they'd brought it back with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unsurprisingly there are hundreds of them round here, mostly used in various states of illegality.

 

If you ever find yourself at Carcassonne airport with time on your hands (there is fuck-all else to do there and its miles from the city) have a wander round the carpark. There is always a selection of long-abandoned UK registered chod with flat tyres, moss growing under them and hundreds of sun-bleached flyers under the wipers.

I also saw this a few years back....

 

DSC00328.jpg

 

Someone would have got a nasty surprise when they got off their plane.

I've been to Carcassonne airport a few times, should have had a look. Not much chance of that now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's another one I remembered and actually have a pic of...

 

A few years ago I was walking through a sink estate in Kings Norton when I happened upon a Toyota Camry with Australian plates:

 

ToyotawithAussiplateinKingsNorton_zps02d

 

I got talking to the fella who's driveway the car was on and he explained that the car belonged to his brother who was then somewhere else in the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I toured Eastern Europe, over 3 weeks, by motorbike in 1989, just before the wall came down. I met 3 sets of Englanders - 2 lived within 10 miles of me back in Blighty. The third lot where in a UK registered Transit parked outside a hotel in an obscure part of Hungary. They were students from York University on an archaeological dig (York was 30 miles from home (in Blighty)).

 

Not the furthest, nor funniest but original.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not particularly far, but a couple of years ago I saw a crash-damaged A-reg Mk1 Sierra dumped on the forecourt of the petrol station round the corner from my parents' in Grenoble.  I did take a photo, but I can't remember which phone I was using at the time so the chances of me finding it are slim.

 

Saw a Mini sporting UK plates in LA, but it did have Cali plates over the top so probably doesn't count.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not particularly far, but a couple of years ago I saw a crash-damaged A-reg Mk1 Sierra dumped on the forecourt of the petrol station round the corner from my parents' in Grenoble. I did take a photo, but I can't remember which phone I was using at the time so the chances of me finding it are slim.

 

Saw a Mini sporting UK plates in LA, but it did have Cali plates over the top so probably doesn't count.

There's a YouTube video that's probably the same car. From the petrolicious channel. Won't comment on the owner.

 

Would post a link but I'm thick and can't do it on my mobile

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cant seem to figure out how to post links but as mentioned before a chap I know called Liam is off round the world on a c90. Blog does not seem to have been updated for a while mind you. Wonder how he is getting on

 

http://www.liamandc90aroundtheworld.com/?m=1

 

*edit* that seems to have worked.

As far as I know, Liam was back in the UK, not sure of the circumstances as I haven't seen him to catch up. Epic journey all the same.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I was out in California ove the summer there was plenty of uber rare British cars out and about with British plates on that had been shipped over for the Pebble Beach concours event but I don't think they really count as being 'proper' wandering cars seeing as half of them would have been put on a plane and back in blighty before I was!

 

As for foreign cars in the UK, there's a chancer one road over from the 'rents who has a Holden Monaro on Queensland plates and has done for a couple of years, I doubt he'll get challenged as Thames Valley Police never challenged the lad driving a Honda Civic on Arab plates that spent nearly ten years going around North Oxford.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

That's fantastically pointless but also something that's not easy to achieve in the US on an imported car that's less than 25 years old, IIRC. Unless it's an elaborately detailed Civic which has had Rover bits attached, like the fella on here who had the Cadillac dressed as a Vauxhall Omega.

 

That said, I remember reading that the bubble-shape Rover 200 sent over to New York for filming the TV ad featuring Sting's Englishman in New York tune caused quite a stir locally, when it was out and about on the roads over there. Not sure this would get so much attention, especially almost 20 years (!) on. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...