World's Most Expensive Car Number Plate

Customised car number plates are quite the trend today and people are willing to shell out huge amounts of money just to get their favourite number or series of numbers on their car number plates. You may have heard about number plates costing at least several lakhs but you will not believe how much the most expensive number plate in the world costs… a whopping INR 132 crores!

The F1 number plate is quite popular and desired amongst the people of the United Kingdom. Gracing cars only for a limited duration, the number plate has been on some very expensive cars, like Bugatti Veyron and Mercedes-McLaren SLR.

Car enthusiasts, in particular, love the F1 number plate as it denotes Formula 1, one of the most famous motorsports in the world. The value of the F1 number plate is very high since the UK government only allows 1 to be in circulation with no other initials or digits on it. This fact has also made this number plate one of the shortest vehicle registration numbers in the world.

History of the F1 Number Plate

The number plate was originally owned by the Essex City Council since 1904 and was put up for auction in 2008 for the very first time. Currently, this number plate adorns an exclusive Bugatti Veyron owned by Afzal Khan, owner of the UK-based Kahn Designs. Khan bought the number plate for a whopping INR 132 crores, making the cost of the number plate several times higher than the value of the Veyron itself.

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This number sold for INR 4 crores when put on auction for the first time. However, the rise in inflation around the world and the increase in its face value and desirability have made the cost of this number rise exponentially. Thus, F1 is the most expensive registration number for a vehicle.

Also Read: Top 22 Most Expensive Cars in the World

Similar Expensive Number Plates

If you thought that the F1 plate is the only expensive number plate in the world, you are in for a big surprise. The D5 number plate owned by an Indian businessman in Abu Dhabi was bought for INR 67 crores. The number plate with only ‘1' as the number is owned by another Abu Dhabi-based businessman who paid INR 66 crores.

The reasons for these obsessions are many. Some want to match their lucky numbers, their astrological signs, birth dates while some want to stand out in the crowd with fancy numbers.