Modern day car design is all about standing out – being bold and eye-catching. Nowadays, if manufacturers aren’t daring with their designs, their cars simply don’t sell. So for better or worse, beautiful or ugly, car design is changing.
So, what about the old fashioned front number plate? Will they work on the faces of radical new designs? Well, that brings us to the five new cars we’ve picked out – all of which feature beautiful bold designs that simply don’t go well with a front number plate.
Aston Martin Vantage
The new Aston Martin Vantage is a striking car to say the least, with an aggressive yet elegant design. One of the stand out features is the gaping front grille, that looks as if the car wants to eat the road ahead. The only problem is, when you put a number plate on it (which you have to – it’s the law in the UK) it just looks as if the car is posturing to swallow the number plate first.
Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
Another new Aston with a gaping mouth is the gorgeous DBS Superleggera. Unfortunately though, it suffers from the same ailment as the Vantage – the front grille is so big that the number plate looks small in comparison. This results in the car looking as if, yet again, it’s eating the number plate. Not ugly as such, just a bit odd.
Alfa Romeo 4C
Alfa’s has always struggled with number plates, mainly due to the signature triangular front grille in the centre of the front bumper. This means number plates have always had to be awkwardly pushed to one side. And with the sleek curvy nature of the 4C, number plates stand out more than they should on such a good-looking car. Instead of the first thing you see being the beautiful Italian design, either in coupe or spider form, the first thing you actually see is some numbers and letters placed on the front of it.
Honda NSX
Like the Alfa Romeo, where the front number plate sits on the latest Honda NSX isn’t completely flat, causing the plate to stand out. This in turn draws your attention away from the futuristic, aggressive, good-looking exterior, and focuses it on the number plate instead. Without it, the NSX would look that bit more sleeker and streamlined, just as Honda intended. By no means does it ruin the look of the car, but by no means does it improve it either.
Lamborghini Huracan Performante
For the more dramatic version of the already over-the-top Huracan, Lamborghini made the front very straight forward – a wide aerodynamic piece with a couple of fang-esque details at each end of the carbon fibre splitter. Now, with most of the middle part of this handsome bull’s face coloured black, a number plate placed on it becomes all the more obvious. But that’s just what sometimes happens with exotic supercars like the Performante.