A quick Google search confirms that there are over 78 billion different combinations of letters, numbers and symbols possible on a 7 character license plate. That’s a lot. Obviously, the vast majority of those possible combinations are random gobbledygook, just meaningless series of letters, numbers and the occasional heart, hand, or star.

For the last several years, I have been fixated by a subset of these combinations. For reasons, unknown even to me, I am compelled to take pictures of, log, and post to my Facebook page, vanity plates that, generally speaking, refer to the vehicle to which they are affixed, or make some reference to the automotive arts or automobile racing.

They come in all varieties and you’ve undoubtedly seen and noticed them. They are not all necessarily that clever, and consequently, I don’t get too excited about the ubiquitous BOBSVET or 92BENZ. There are then a couple of other categories that are the ones I capture and log. There are a lot of standard fare combinations that are mildly clever, obvious, cheeky, mundane, offensive, suggestive, and/or so lame that you wonder why the owner would even want to spend the extra coin on the custom plate. Regardless, I always take the time to get the photo, add them to my spreadsheet (yeah, a spreadsheet), and then post them on my personal FB page. At this point, I’ve personally captured more than 3,500 unique plates (I do not log/post any that are forwarded to me by my friends and/or fellow fans).

Now I know there have been numerous articles written ridiculing and mocking the humble vanity plate and/or the person behind it. Honestly, I guess a lot of the criticism is probably deserved. This 2017 Jalopnik article is largely correct about personalized plates (proof: my #zilla gallery below) , but at the same time, it egged me on to continue to pursue true plate excellence.

It’s obvious that not everyone puts the same amount of thought behind their plate. Some are so worthless that it’s hard to figure out why someone would plunk down the extra coin….to the DMV no less for the option.

All this said, I’m going to go out on a limb and say I probably put more time and energy into vanity plates than maybe anyone else….literally. There are some great plate community sites out there. One of my favorites is KEWL PL8S and Vanity Plates & Vanity Platespotters on Facebook. It’s a great community and people after my own heart. But it and other sites focus on all types of vanity plates. They’re funny, clever, bizarre, edgy…all the good stuff of vanity plates.

I crave more though. I focus on plates with “automotiveness,” for lack of a better description. As you can see with the title photo for this piece, there are individuals who really understand the plate game. That plate had me scratching my head for about 15 minutes before I both figured it out and then realized that there are folks out there were in a whole other league of #plateness (that’s plate+greatness). To prove my point, that' they’re not all corny, obvious or cliche, I thought I’d give you some examples of genius with 7 characters. My heart tells me I need to share 50 of these, but my experience tells me that, if you’re still actually reading this, I should limit myself to ten.

A little bit of both…

Some fish on fish action.

An ode to Lane Myer.

Come on, it’s cute…

This one’s just plain good.

Purple one for the Purple One.

It just hit me in the feels.

Sweaty and neglected….or not…

This one’s for my pisan!

And last but not least. This is one of my first and favorite. It might even leave a few fellow Porschephiles scratching their heads. I’ll let you figure it out for yourself.

If you’ve made it this far…thank you! I hope you’ve enjoyed a little of my passion/mania. If this kind of thing is something you’re into, I’m totally open to any ideas you may have about something creative to do with all these plates. Mark and I have discussed possibilities over the years, but apparently none of them have been good enough to act on…or maybe I just need some inspiration or motivation or well something. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please feel free to hit me at andrew@theloudpedalblog.com.

-Andrew