Hou-TX-RX-8

I am still waiting on plates from the dealer. I wish I could keep the front plate off. THe front of my 8 looks so awesome with no front plate to mess it up. Does anyone else share this opinion??

Nat

Booster MPS

Feel ya Nat.

I moved from Houston last Sept and had a front plate (on a diff car at that time). You could chance it but if you get pulled over for anything else, you will get a ticket for sure. Or if you are ever driving by cops, you could get stopped - it is kind of one of those matter of time things.

KC_Prelude

I left mine off until one day a cop saw my car parked on my street (its usually in the drive way) and gave me a $35 ticket. A front plate doesn't look too bad on my 88 prelude but any car will look better without one. The thing that irks me is that 2 miles from my house in kansas they dont have to have front plates or even get their cars inspected every year. I say if you can afford it its worth the tickets not to have to ruin the front end of your 8.

Ajax

my brother got stopped in his mini the other day for speeding and didnt have a front plate. He got warned about the front plate and given a ticket for speeding. I have a feeling it just attracts cops.

When I picked up my car, it had the front mounting bracket attached and I asked how hard it was to remove and they said it was a piece of cake, but they had to put the brackets on there or they'd get in trouble. I don't have my plates yet either but I do plan to take off the front bracket when I get them anyway.

8_wannabe

If I could get by with a $35 ticket only once or twice a year it'd be worth it. I've been driving in SoCal since July 03 no plates and so far no one has razzed me about it. Keepin' my fingers crossed! And that includes onbase, cuz I'm retired military. Sometimes the gate guards will stop you for plates, but they all love my '8 so much they just wave me thru.

G8rboy

Not only do I share it, but I live by it. No font plate for my eight!

I'll take a couple of tickets a year if I have to. Been doing it going on two years now between my Miata and the RX-8 and never had problem with the Illinois cops.

Chief

I'm risking it right now, I so hate the front plate

D MENAC 7

I would do the same but...

I live in our state's Capitol. We have the following list of law enforcement forces that drive around here all day and night:

City Police
Sherrif and Deputy Sherrifs
State Police
Park Police
Secretary of State Police
Grandview (an adjoining town) police who make their salaries by ticketing for speeding, etc.
Leland Grove (see above)
Gerome (see above)
Southern View (see above)
UIS police (where I work)

So, if I think I can drive without front plates, since I finally got my set recently, without some ******** cop trying to get his quota pullin' my **** over and doling me out a fine, it ain't going to be long before that would happen. (*Coming from a family where my Father was a cop, in a different part of the state, I do not think that all cops are asses, they are just a cross-section of society in which some people are ********, others not.)

So, I did do something that took the brightness off of the front plate and I put a smoked lens over the front plate. Yes, still illegal but less likeley to get pulled over except by some overly zealous ******* cop which I'll take my chance with this happening.

Given some time and waiting until later this spring/summer whne it's warm enough to do some major work as such, I am going to attempt a front grill mod where I will be recessing the front plate into a box in the grille, putting dark tinting over a window on the front and lighting it up when the vehicle is running. At least when it's parked, it will look much better. That is my plan, or at least I hope it work well enough.

Elara

9kRever convinced me to take mine off (I was too chicken before) two weeks ago. It looks so much better. I guess I'll just suck it up and pay the ticket if I get pulled over.

silver1_rx8

I took my front mounting bracket off as soon as I got home from the dealership. Like all others have said, costly if caught but worth it!

boarder

Chief: I am with you on that one. Still no front plate for me around town.

Aratinga

I've driven front-plateless in California since 1991. None of my cars wear a front plate. So far, no tickets. ::knocking on wood::

boothguy

Like Aratinga, I've similarly been front-plateless on my cars since '88 without a ticket. I've been stopped and ticketed for other (ahem) offenses, but never written up for that particular one.

D Menac 7: sounds like you have issues, bro... In my experience, when a cop pulls you over for some seemingly minor infraction, he's actually fishing for something else. He doesn't want to waste time on silly stuff any more than you, but he's suspicious about you or the car or both and wants to see what will pop out when he squeezes your shoes a little. Just part of modern life, gang.

Chief

Yeah boarder, I probably shouldn't say this "knock on wood" but I rarely even see many cops on the roads in this town. I rarely get pulled over, and I did get pulled over once going 90 in a 60 (only had the car for two weeks too haha) and the cop didn't even notice the front plate wasn't there

Nubo

To quote a Drew Carey routine: "Why make the money if you can't have fun spendin' it"?

loco4rx8

[knock wood]

No front plate for me ... so far. I decided from the start that one or two fix-it tickets a year would be worth it. As long as it isn't points on my record, it's all good.

I live in a rural area, so no cops come snooping around my car at night. Whenever I park in a parking lot, I park "nose-in" so it's harder for them to see that there's no plate as they drive by.

I meet cops on the road daily, and they don't seem to notice, or care. I suppose if one was a in particularly bad mood, he'd pull me.

When I got rear-ended back in November, the trooper didn't even notice there wasn't a plate.

[/knock wood]

ibfubar2000

no plate for me either. I am waiting to get a ticket. but I do keep my plate and bracket in my trunk so i will just tell him/her "I have an appointment to put it on tommorrow" or "I just came back from the @#$%& dealer and they forgot to put it on so now I have to go back again next week" also I still have my registration in my windshield so if a cop sees me coming it will just look like a new purchase, hopfefully he wont notice the rear or just not realize it.

Formula 420

i saw an 8 with it's plate under the right for light, it was framed and it said REDTOY on the plate, but it didn't look half bad. my preferance is nekked, but i have to drive with plates on the front and back too. when i buy an 8 i'll probibly drive with a back plate only. maybe keep a plate beside my seat and if i get pulled over i'll put it in my woindow,

Ajax

I took my frame off today for the front and i still have the temporary plate on the back. Funny enough the dealer actually had screwed up the front mounting frame anyway and it would've come off eventually. They tightenned one of the screws to the point where it went thru the plastic and it really wasn't doing any good there.

I'll keep it with me and tell the cop the dealer f'd it up and it was hanging on 1 side (because it eventually would have been) and that i'm getting a new frame for it.

No front plates. Vette drivers and trans am drivers get away with it. I should too.

Icanrel-8

I, too, think it is a greater crime to put the plate on the front than it is to break the law requiring it.

I've been trying to cook up some James Bond way of going without, but if a cop starts to pull you over, hit a button and the front grill rotates like those bookcases in the mystery movies, to reveal the front plate.

Then, back on the street, click, whirr, no plate! Now if I could just get the machine guns to pop out of the rotor design on the hood... and get the oil slick to spill out without ruining the zaino on the back end... :D

Ajax

maybe we need a holographic plate projector for the front of our cars.. yea.. that'd be cool...

D MENAC 7

Actually, I have only been pulled over when I am caught speeding. I've had 5 tickets in my life and I'm 47.

The last was about 2 years ago for doing 30 in a school zone which was posted 20, when children are present. There were two kids on the whole street, accross from the school, and they were walking to their school which was 6 blocks up the road. This school was an early childhood developmental center and all the kids going there are under 5. This was 7:30 am and that school doesn't even accept kids there until 8:00 am. This was a speed trap detail that was financed by the federal government...that is what the cop told me. This was a ridiculous ticket that cost me a bunch because of the school zone and it was unwarranted. The D.A. didn't listen but repeated the law...any child in a school zone from 7 am until 5:30 pm is counted as a reduced speed zone.

So, for another year, I have to watch it in school zones, construction zones and around school busses. I have no problems with these situations, I always watched it in these areas but this is was only a school by definition. They nabbed a bunch of us that day.

Ok, issues, maybe this one and only one. But otherwise, I don't. However, I do drive an "arrest me" velocity red RX-8. So far ,so good, let's hope it stays that way.

Ajax

Yea, you think that's bad but IL is lenient when it comes to school zones. It's nothing like TX as I remember.

In TX, they have flashing yellow lights in school zones and white lines on the road. When those things are on and you're between the white lines (one at the entrance to the zone and one at the exit), if you're doin 5 over and you get spotted, yer getting a nasty ticket. While the light is off, normal rules are in effect, but when I first moved here from IL, I had no idea and nearly rear ended someone because I didn't know they slowed down to 20.

So imagine a normally 40 mile per hour road, everyone doing 50 and then you hit a school zone with 20 mile per hour traffic and you just didnt realize it slowed down like that... talk about dangerous...

JimJimElf

I don't like having to have a front plate either but don't like tickets more. Plus it just gives a cop a reason to pull you over. And since I got a smart mouth getting pulled over is not an option.

G8rboy

The illinois law for school zones leaves it very open to interpretation... I was surprised when I moved here from Florida, where the signs have posted times, and the signs are the start & stop points. Here the signs say 'whenever children are present'... and it doesn't mean between the signs. I go by a couple schools on my way to work, and am very careful to go exactly 20mpg through there...