back to article Man stumps record £375k for number plate

A businessman has stumped a record £375,000 to secure the F1 number plate, the Mirror reports. Afzal Kahn, who owns a car conversion firm, secured his prize at an Essex county council auction, in the process beating the previous record of £331,000 paid for M1. The council had held the plate since 1904. Kahn said: "I am …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    F...

    as in FUCKWIT 1

    I suppose the best that can be said is that at least he didn't blow the money on drugs.

  2. David Harper

    Pass the sick bag

    Kahn said: "I am privileged to have such a prestigious plate."

    No, you're a pathetic idiot who'll be first against the wall when the revolution comes.

  3. 4a$$Monkey
    IT Angle

    Does not compute...

    11111

    What’s so special about having 31 on your number plate?

    A Robot.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WHAT?

    "he "wanted the number desperately for his Ferrari""

    Desperately?

    This while people are dying because they can't afford food. Get some perspective.

  5. Omer Ozen
    Paris Hilton

    So...

    does it make him drive any better?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    What a pr1ck

    ..... and hat please

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Some people

    just have far too much money....

  8. Ian Peters

    what a prize tw*t

    How about the REG (sorry about the pun) creating a Darwin Awards like competition for people doing this sort of thing as they need removing from the gene pool as well e.g. Darwin Awards - Complete Twat Table.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    So unless...

    .. He buys himself a Bugatti Veyron or something similar, the car he puts the plates on would be worth a fraction of what the plates are.

    Looks like a case of someone with way too much money.

    Mad, aboslutely mad!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Don't see anything wrong with that...

    ...it's his money, his choice of how to spend it. The plate will have more of a resale value than a lot of fashion accessories. And will most likely keep its value better than the car it's stuck to.

  11. Bill Fresher

    @AC

    "This while people are dying because they can't afford food. Get some perspective."

    Well then, why doesn't whoever he paid for the plate use the money to feed the starving? The F1 geezer's money is being used to finance a safe driving scheme. It would be far worse if these people left their money sitting in a bank and didn't redistribute it by buying tat.

  12. Elsnorff

    Whats wrong with that?

    If i had lots of money i would buy a gold plated Itanium processor! That license plate doesnt seem like such a waste of money now does it?

  13. micheal
    Dead Vulture

    Shows how much it's not worth having

    That Bernie Eccleston didnt even bother looking

  14. Gerry Keen
    Stop

    @ David Harper and others

    Firstly he has the money because he has set up a successful business (with all that implies) so good for him. Secondly the money he has spent is being ploughed back into the community. All in all, a rather good example of a free economy in action. His taste is questionable however, but that's up to him.

  15. Natalie Gritpants

    He could have had this one for much less

    W4NKR

  16. Name
    Unhappy

    @ 4a$$Monkey

    Hex F1 in binary is 11110001, or 241. If you're going to snark, get it right.

  17. Mike
    Flame

    Name and shame

    How about publishing the name of the company, so the rest of the world can boycott it?

    Surely if the company is doing well enough that the owner can pay himself sufficiently to be able to shell out 375k on a number plate, the company must be ripping off its clientelle something chronic, and so should be avoided until they make their pricing scheme more realistic.

    And yes, I am bitter. I'm struggling to buy my house, and it's half the price of this tw*t's latest acquisition.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    @4a$$Monkey

    Surely that should be 11110001? (241)

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmm

    Wasn't there a proverb about a fool and his money?

    Also Chris W, I think that he'd of got more out of £375k's worth of drugs and booze than he will out of the plate.

    Personally, I'd of gone for hookers and blackjack, a la Bender.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Does compute

    Not such a waste of money "The cash from the sale will be directed into a safe-driving scheme for young motorists." Better than burning a hole in Mr Kahn's pocket.

    These expensive plates are a no lose situatiuon, rich guy go's away happy with nice plate, government get wad of cash from rich guy to use on the safe-driving scheme, then again, that's trusting this government to actually do something useful with that scheme, hmmm

  21. James
    IT Angle

    One you 'might' like

    I saw C7RL F just last week. (illegally spaced I know)

  22. Anna Log
    Paris Hilton

    Would n't it be cheaper ...

    To just change your number plates to 'F1' anyway, or maybe "TO55 ERS" is better, and pay the fines?

  23. eurobloke
    Coat

    I wonder if Essex CC is going to get a slice of that plate to its c tax payers?

    Earlier, a few years ago ECC bought "ECC 1" for £7 000 for its executive car, in return to sell F1 and 1F, two of the oldest plates in Britain.

    I get my coat,

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Name and Coward - Read the Frikking Ariticle and the Comment

    The comment was about the fellow who bought the plate "111111" for his Ferrari. "111111" is the binary representation of 31.

  25. Mister Cheese
    Stop

    @AC and By Name

    Pay attention 007 (111). 11111 was a reference to the *other* plate mentioned in the article - the one on the Ferrari. Not the British one bought from Essex council.

  26. Bob
    Unhappy

    Am i the only one...

    who read this:

    "The cash from the sale will be directed into a safe-driving scheme for young motorists."

    and translated it as "more traffic cameras"?

  27. Tim
    Flame

    @Mike, ad f-ing hominem

    Mr Kahn worked hard at building his business and this, along with his taxes, is just more money he's putting back into society. A lot more than your contribution I'm sure. His company - Project Kahn - pimps out Range Rovers for the 'urban' elite. Very bling and all that. 'Ripping off' doesn't even come into it. Bit like saying you should boycott Tiffany's because £10,000 is too much for an earring. Not for some it ain't.

    Anyway you're not so pure. All you're doing is pushing up the prices of houses yet further by sitting on the 'demand' side when the market is at a peak, thus making it even harder for people more deserving than you to get a foot on the ladder.

    Jealousy of someone else's success is a vile trait. What you've failed to grasp is that while you're busy whingeing away with your neo-socialist bollocks about high earners you're busy trying to line your own pockets with a massively leveraged purchase of a highly speculative asset. There's nothing worse than some anti capitalist twat ranting on about how unfair the fat cats are when they don't even realise that they're just another example of the very thing they profess to hate.

  28. TheHempKnight

    why the fuss?

    What's the big deal here? So he spent that on a number plate, how is that hurting anyone or anything except his own bank balance? and in this case, it wouldn't exactly hurt that, I say if he's got the cash to do it, why the hell not?

  29. tom
    Thumb Up

    A hell of a lot of people not understanding...

    People buy these type of plates as an investment.

    It's like buying a piece of art, Picassos don't sell for millions purely because of artistic quality, they sell because in a few years time they will sell for more. Same with an 80 year old bottle of wine, or shares in google, or half a ton of gold bullion, or another house...

    Once you've got as much cash as this guy you want to spread the risk, especially with an impending recession when the stock markets and property are likely to lose more value than art & trinkets. A number plate is just as worthy as any other investment even if it is worth more than my house and car put together.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Title

    In this world some folk can clearly accumulate more wealth than they are worth to society (or they inherit it) so for some instinctively understanding the real value of money, isn't an issue. Maybe £365k to him seemed the same as £36.50 to those of us that form the masses. The excessively rich will always indulge themselves like this. This is hardly an exception.

  31. paul
    Linux

    obligatory linux angle

    Prev story from el reg -

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/22/linux_numberplate/

  32. Daniel

    Name Games

    P155 0FF - Might be the old type, but I would say its still doing the rounds somewhere.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    F1

    Isn't F1 windows-speak for 'help!' ?

    I'm guessing he's a desperate lonely windows geek making a very public cry for help?

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Blown fuse

    Anyone who was disgusted by this story must have blown a fuse when they read this:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/23/mobile_number_sold/

  35. Steen Hive
    Boffin

    @Tim

    "neo-socialist bollocks"

    Care to explain what's "neo" about it?

    I'm sure the people who made the £375k would work less hard if the govt took it off the prick in tax.

  36. Jeremy
    Joke

    What's the likelihood

    That Bernie Ecclestone will sue him for copyright infringement?

  37. peter
    Thumb Up

    Canny

    Resale value probably keeps up with inflation for the next boom, nationwide press coverage The Times, Mirror, Sun etc for what is a niche business needing a scatter gun approach. Charitable side involved aids publicity.

    Press cuttings for showroom, website, glitz.

    Repeat when selling.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    But he could have had...

    But he could have had "CHUMP" so much cheaper...

  39. dervheid

    Or this one

    WNK 3 R

  40. Daniel
    Gates Horns

    that's exactly ...

    ... 37,500 hot arsed teenage lap dancers. All at once.

    What a tool.

    Or 375000 Essex girls.

    Maybe he's not so dumb.

  41. Brad

    Tch...

    Unbelievably backward comments from some here.

    I presume those bleating about this bloke having 'too much money to spend' have never bought themselves anything that isn't a complete necessity?

    375 grand to him maybe the same as £3.75 to you, he earned it and paid the tax, he can spend it on whatever the hell he likes.

    £3.75 will feed someone for a week in parts of the third world so don't you dare buy yourself a DVD. Muppets.

    I wondered about this plate because I used to see it on Ford Granada's and the like round my way, didn't realize the council owned it.

  42. Rick Brasche
    Joke

    to heck with "F 1"

    How about "F U"!

  43. Anonymous John
    Joke

    Why not just

    save money on an expensive personalised car number plate by simply changing

    your name to match your existing plate.

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @ Ian Peters, Re Complete Twat Table

    Nice Idea - unfortunately - Too many nominations for one life time.

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @ Tim

    Well said. Very eloquently spoken. And a F*ck you to all the haters who seem to think that they have a right to judge! FFS, i wouldn't mind betting that all the people, that commented negatively, would give their eye teeth for the ability to provide for their family as this man can. All you have to do is concentrate and work hard. A concept lost on most of the inhabitants of this green and pleasant land!

  46. Bill
    Go

    You think that's allot?

    Across the pond Delaware tag # 6 is expected to sell for around 1 million dollars...

    www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080120/NEWS/801200351/1006/NEWS

    A few years ago the prize to a contest/lottery was a 1950 something car with a matching Delaware 2 digit tag. The tag at that time was worth more than the car.

    No, it doesn't make any sense to most people here either......

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bernie will want it !!

    Im sure Bernie Ecclestone will be happy to pay £1m plus for such a registration as F1 so maybe that guy is not so stupid.

  48. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nothing special

    Locally I see lots of plates which are obviously worth a lot of cash.

    In some cases these are appropriate, like 'V8' on an Aston Martin VAntage (one of the proper old ones)

    And a few which are just pure ego (like the modified Range Rover with a plate that somehow spelled 'ORGASM'?!)

    The truly expensive plates though were/are on normal cars. I've seen both the ''letter' 1' plates that can be interpreted as names (there are two; work it out), which by being a '1' plate AND being a name would be worth 6 figures. But the actual cars themselves were nothing special, as can be confirmed by a registration lookup

    (Ok, having just looked one has shifted from a Peugeot 307CC to a Lamborghini, but it *was* on the Peugeot)

    Personally I wouldn't bother with a memorable personal plate, I just think it would have too many potential downsides. Just some old non-date coded number would be enough.

    Also I wouldn't have sold off F1, as it was a bit of history and an asset. Now it's just a small amount of cash pissed away on something that has no retained value, and probably no long term benefit.

  49. Dave
    Go

    Well done!

    I think the guy has the right to buy it with his own money.

    If he's earned the money and paid the TAX on his earnings, i say good investment. He's probably already on the phone to Bernie Ecclestone

    Essex council will do a lot with that money.

    The spread effect of money will help alot of people.

    Go Kahn

  50. b166er

    Capitlulism

    Sure, it's OK to rise to the 'top' and be a big earner, maybe we should get to a point first though, where no-one in the world is starving before we insult them in such ways.

  51. Jorge Olguin Avalos
    Gates Halo

    That kind of money here in south america...

    would get you kidnapped in 2 hours. So if the question is if it's too much money, it's just a relativy question.. in some countries, a lot of people would eat from that money, in other countries would get you killed and in some countries just one person reaches his dreams... so it depends enterily in wich place you are standing on... I think it doesn't woth the talking...

    (by the way.. I vote for the Darwin awards. It would be grat have such awards.)

    Greetings, see you later as I have to go to kidnap a bartender.. I need 10 usd... and if I see mr. Pancho, here in town, I kill him... that will get me 15 usd...

  52. Maty

    his money ...

    And of course, everyone here whingeing about the starving third world thinks carefully about whether the money for their latest tech toy could not be better spent on a few (hundred) bowls of rice in Laos or wherever.

    How do we know that this guy did not know how the money for his plate was going to be spent? Then its the same as being asked 'Fancy giving 300k for a scheme to encourage young drivers to drive safely? Oh, and we'll give you this F1 plate in return.'

    You guys seriously have a problem with that?

  53. Mr Larrington
    Dead Vulture

    A fool and his money...

    ...are soon parted. Which probably explains why Bernie Ecclestone didn't bother (not to mention the fact that he's recently flogged practically the entire contents of his garage).

  54. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @Tim

    Very well said

This topic is closed for new posts.