BMT 216A... why is the 6 a 4 in GE & TND?

PropertyOfALady

I was wondering why Bond's licence plate inexplicably changes from BMT 216A to BMT 214A?

Matt S

This article: https://007today.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/iaq-why-did-the-license-plate-for-the-db5-change/

You've seen it before according to this thread: http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/8759/an-unfinished-history-of-all-the-james-bond-aston-martins

PropertyOfALady

I just thought there might be a more definitive answer that you might know. It just didn't seem like a very good source to me.

Matt S

I've always understood it to be a legal issue.

IanT

It was "unavailable" at the time so the producers went with the 4 instead of the 6.

In either the GE or TND novel, it is explained that the car is one of a collection auctioned off by MI6 that has been disarmed. Bond outbids Tanner for it.

It is also my belief that the SF DB5 is part of the outdated stock that has not yet been disarmed.

Rainier Wolfcastle

Matt S wrote:

This article: https://007today.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/iaq-why-did-the-license-plate-for-the-db5-change/

You've seen it before according to this thread: http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/8759/an-unfinished-history-of-all-the-james-bond-aston-martins

Excerpts from the first link:

[iThe general consensus from the Aston Martin experts we spoke to was that it was a legal reason that kept the producers from using the original license plate number.

“The car is supposed to be the same but they couldn`t use the plate number BMT 216A because of legal reasons.”

“The “real” reason was that a private collector had bought the original Aston Martin used in Goldfinger, and it was in a private collection, so the producers decided to use a `similar` number plate.”

“Due to British laws a registration number may only be issued once, in the intervening years between Thunderball and GoldenEye the car may well have been lost or destroyed so the number could not be used, either that or someone made a pretty big goof up in production.”

“The licence plate BMT 216A was registered by the owner of the Aston Martin and could not be seen in the film since it is legally a registered licence plate. Even the owner was upset they could not use the plate. They chose to deviate the 6 into a 4.”

[...] it was part of a private collection. [...] British registration law was at the root of the problem

An interesting thread and links. I have wondered myself long ago why the GE Aston Martin has a "wrong" numberplate. I am no "Aston Martin expert" but the explanations above don't convince me. I have Dave Worrall's book "The Most Famous Car in the World" and there I read for the first time that the number plate BMT 216A was retained by Aston Martin in 1969 when the car was sold. It got the plate 6633PP as mentioned correctly in the second link. It is also pictured with this plate in the Losee collection along with the GF Phantom III.

So, BMT 216A was not assigned to the GF Aston Martin after 1969. But was it ever used thereafter on other Aston Martin factory cars? Has anyone ever seen a photo of a newer Aston Martin with the BMT 216A plates? I haven't. And do they still have the right to use the registration? In England it seems possible to buy and collect cherished/personalized plates and selling them on after many years without actually using them (that would not be allowed in many other countries).
I also wondered why Aston Martin decided to retain the registration BMT 216A in the first place? Yes, it is a significant piece of Aston Martin history but those were the same guys who had just ripped out the remaining gadgets and were selling this very car like any other used DB5 ... 8-)

Shooting films often involves cars with different or fake registrations, so why would British registration law be a problem here? It's not that such cars are driving on public roads (in the case of GE not even in Britain but in France).
It's not unusual that a real registration has shown up on a film car. The owners of registrations AU1 or BS1 have agreed to their use for GF and The Saint - the only legal reason to prevent this is an owner who refuses its use.

It seems to me that Aston Martin still was the owner of the registration BMT 216A and that they were not too interested in its use with the old DB5 - maybe they also wanted some product placement for their current cars which wasn't possible because of BMW's involvement. So we got a Z3 1.9 instead of a DB7 or Virage Vantage ...?