The 'E' Type Forum

As of October this year the DVLA will no longer be issuing tax discs and it will no longer be a legal requirement to display. This is an ideal opportunity to fill the vacant spot on the windscreen with a period disc with your original registration date, office of issue, make and other details. Anyone able to recommend a decent supplier who can fill in all the details? A quick Google showed quite a few companies but what they offer and cost varies enormously:

http://www.poplargreg.com/
http://www.britishtaxdiscs.co.uk/order-tax-disc.php
http://www.fromanothertime.com/

I've got one of the Earlswood ones. Good prompt service and the disc itself certainly looks the part. Not cheap for what is essentially a bit of paper - but then again neither is a normal car's VED :D The only slight criticism is that the writing on the disc is actually a printed font rather than handwritten in ink - but you'd have to peer pretty closely to notice.

I'm going to order from here: http://www.poplargreg.com/taxdiscs/taxd ... xdiscs.htm

You get handwritten details, stamped from any office of your choice and two spare discs - ?7 plus ?4 if you want a specific office stamp. The ones from Earlswood are ?26 for one.

Be interesting to see how you get on. It certainly looks a much better value package than Earlswood's offering. Here for reference is my Earlswood one:

The Poplargreg discs are round and not perforated although given the selvedge is torn off and thrown away perhaps not a problem. They are however printed on both sides, have the correct stamp and month - so in my case the disc will show expiry as April 1963 - the Earlswood discs all end in December. The Earlswood ones seem to be traditionally printed whereas the Poplargreg ones are computer generated and printed. I will order some and report back.

Looking at this made me realise something about my car. It was manufactured on 15th March 1962 and dispatched 17th April 1962 via Henley's (no Dealer recorded). The buff log book records it was first registered on 1st April 1962 and the date stamp is 11th April 1962 at the Birmingham office ('OHY' is a Birmingham reg number) so probably registered by the Factory. The first recorded keeper is shown as A.P. Burt & Sons Ltd, Severn Paper Mills, Portishead, Bristol and dated 18th April 1962.

Incidentally this site allows you to decode your reg number to issuing authority http://www.poplargreg.com/taxdiscs/taxd ... onyear.htm

I'm going to order two sets from the Poplargreg website for my S1 and GT6. My only problem is that they don't list any registrations beginning with X. In my case XUR 524K for the GT6. Was this prefix reserved for certain situations, I wonder?

Cheers

Alan

And whilst we're on about tax discs, how about a little plea for 'period appropriate' tax disc holders? For instance, I know there have been some questions as to the ultimate authenticity of the indicators etc on 9600 HP, but honestly, that thing in the windscreen......

I'm sure it's be nice to not have something obstructing your view through what is already a small windscreen, but I'm curious about how the police will know that the taxes have been paid when they see a car on the road. Will stickers now be attached to the rear number plate, as they do in the U.S?

Next, there needs to be a worldwide ban on the front number plate!

We (or at least the Police) have ANPR cameras which automatically check the registration number against the DVLA MOT and insurance databases. From October they are adding tax status. The ANPR cameras are everywhere - supermarkets and motorway services are using them to time your stay so they can fine you for overstaying your welcome

Thanks for enlightening me, David. I guess surveillance has become universal. As for the front-plate thing, I ran my MGA, Sprite and E-Types without front plates. While talking my way out of a citation for this, I asked the officer, "Who stands in front of a car to take its license number?" He let me off with a warning! At least they allow you guys to use a self-adhesive decal up front.

Ahh, that is only because they realised their front facing speed cameras could still read the plate. They have however upgraded their cameras to take pictures of rear numberplates to catch bikers (see Pete Crespin as an example of the species). The stick on front plate is still technically illegal over here and I am waiting for the first jobsworth officer of the law to pull me although the only time I have been pulled ( at well above the legal limit on an open road) they were only interested in talking about E-Type's.

Arrived. Total cost ?12 including two spares:


The serrations are photographic, not real.

I never bothered with a tax disc when they were mandatory....not sure I will now :?

Looks good to me! I think you'd have to be a committed velologist :D to spot any real difference between that and the Earlswood offering - particularly one that would warrant the big price differential.

Should you now find yourself bitten by the bug, I've located this on Amazon:



:D

My discs came with a five page history entitled 'Great Britain Road Tax Discs 1921-1978' and very interesting it is.

Just had my Tax disc back from poplargreg and very pleased. I went for 6 months duration so then, in my case, the expiry fell in the same year as first registered.

Used the ebay link which gave the change of issuing office option for a total of ?8!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131272328637? ... 1497.l2649

Thread title should change as from tomorrow "Reinvention of the Tax Disc"

Tip when you come to fit these to the car. There are no real perforations, just printed ones, so cut the disc out to remove these. You then place the faux disc in the holder with the last real serrated disc as backing. You will then see the faux disc complete with real serrations. Just ordered a disc for the Elan and decided to try another vendor (cheaper and you get 6 discs plus a jpeg image for review): http://tinyurl.com/mu9nwlh

Not wishing to be picky..... but if the disc has got a 1 Sep '69 issuing date, and says "12 months/?25", why has it got a Dec '69 expiry date?

Precisely why this vendor sends you a draft for approval. I have already asked him to correct it before final printing and despatch.