Rolls press cars -TU

Author
Discussion

tali1

Original Poster:

5,274 posts

208 months

Monday 10th September 2007
quotequote all
Rolls press cars feature usually TU private plates 2000TU/1900TU/1800TU/3500TU is there any significance with the numbers and TU -(The Ultimate?)
I did ask rolls many years back my letter and they replied simply confirming what i said "yes we do use those plates" - without elaborating any significance!

Balmoral Green

41,776 posts

255 months

Monday 10th September 2007
quotequote all
They had a set of the TU plates when the Mulsanne Turbo was launched in 1982. They still have them and can still be seen on company vehicles. Bentley Motors now of course, not Rolls Royce. As it happens, i've just bought an original add from 1991, which shows a red Turbo R with the plate 1900 TU.

tali1

Original Poster:

5,274 posts

208 months

Tuesday 11th September 2007
quotequote all
yes BG i am fully aware of that- but as i asked in my post do they have any significance?- the numbers and TU?

V12Aston

193 posts

242 months

Tuesday 11th September 2007
quotequote all
Cheshire registrations (eg Crewe). As far as I am aware, that is the only significance.

Balmoral Green

41,776 posts

255 months

Tuesday 11th September 2007
quotequote all
I always thought that TU was for TUrbo, and that the numbers are just nice neat round numbers. But the TU plate set goes back to the early seventies and they pre-date the turbo cars (although the turbo development was done back in 1973 on a Shadow). Maybe they are just a nice set of plates, and don't have any significance, any reason for thinking they mean something?



Edited by Balmoral Green on Tuesday 11th September 16:47

Hobbit123

636 posts

234 months

Tuesday 11th September 2007
quotequote all
Is it not something to do with the reason that all car companies use letters that can be photographically reversed to show left/right hand drive to suit?

So, you can use H, M, V, X, A, W etc, but not N, P, C?

Balmoral Green

41,776 posts

255 months

Tuesday 11th September 2007
quotequote all
2000TU/1900TU/1800TU/3500TU

UT0081 is the only one that will work with the photo reversed.

Hobbit123

636 posts

234 months

Wednesday 12th September 2007
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Oh yeah. I always get confused by numbers.
I guess it could just be something that started out as a coincidence and became tradition, like the organ stops on the dash, Spirit of Ecstacy and so on.

tali1

Original Poster:

5,274 posts

208 months

Wednesday 12th September 2007
quotequote all
Balmoral Green said:
I always thought that TU was for TUrbo, and that the numbers are just nice neat round numbers. But the TU plate set goes back to the early seventies and they pre-date the turbo cars (although the turbo development was done back in 1973 on a Shadow). Maybe they are just a nice set of plates, and don't have any significance, any reason for thinking they mean something?



Edited by Balmoral Green on Tuesday 11th September 16:47
reckon , possibly camargue was first to have one in 1975 - but no turbo connection there
as for significance , well , porsche use 911 on their fleets and bentley use WO - makes sense, but these TUs seem conspicuous and regular and wondered why not stick with standard age plate?

Edited by tali1 on Thursday 13th September 20:37

markmullen

15,877 posts

241 months

Sunday 30th September 2007
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I will ask my mate, his dad was chairman of RR Bentley for a while, I am sure he will be able to shed some light on it.

Thorny

1,076 posts

217 months

Tuesday 2nd October 2007
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“The ‘TU’ series was originally issued in Cheshire. Rolls-Royce and Bentley had several in this series which they used on their factory demonstrators and for the cars in their catalogues, because these numbers didn’t show the year of manufacture.


Micknall

826 posts

256 months

Thursday 18th October 2007
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There's nothing significant about our 'TU'-suffixed number plates, I'm afraid. TU used to be the regional identifier for Cheshire-registered cars, and the Crewe factory is obviously in that county.

As someone mentioned, we now have 1800 TU, 1900 TU, 2000 TU and 20 TU attached to our press cars, as well as 1WO (..some significance, there!) and various others. Wherever possible, we like to retain these numbers which have appeared on so many landmark Bentleys from the past.

Simon Hucknall
PR Manager - Product
Bentley Motors Limited

tali1

Original Poster:

5,274 posts

208 months

Thursday 18th October 2007
quotequote all
Micknall said:
There's nothing significant about our 'TU'-suffixed number plates, I'm afraid. TU used to be the regional identifier for Cheshire-registered cars, and the Crewe factory is obviously in that county.

As someone mentioned, we now have 1800 TU, 1900 TU, 2000 TU and 20 TU attached to our press cars, as well as 1WO (..some significance, there!) and various others. Wherever possible, we like to retain these numbers which have appeared on so many landmark Bentleys from the past.

Simon Hucknall
PR Manager - Product
Bentley Motors Limited
Thanks for that, also discovered a relatively large number of Bentleys feature the W0 plates , only 2WO, 8WO and 40WO are non Bentley

stevebedford1969

172 posts

225 months

Thursday 1st November 2007
quotequote all
tali1 said:
Micknall said:
There's nothing significant about our 'TU'-suffixed number plates, I'm afraid. TU used to be the regional identifier for Cheshire-registered cars, and the Crewe factory is obviously in that county.

As someone mentioned, we now have 1800 TU, 1900 TU, 2000 TU and 20 TU attached to our press cars, as well as 1WO (..some significance, there!) and various others. Wherever possible, we like to retain these numbers which have appeared on so many landmark Bentleys from the past.

Simon Hucknall
PR Manager - Product
Bentley Motors Limited
Thanks for that, also discovered a relatively large number of Bentleys feature the W0 plates , only 2WO, 8WO and 40WO are non Bentley
1900TU is in the 50 Cent / Justin Timberlake video.

The Flying Spur is very nice, but have to say there are other good things to view as well!!!!!!

see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na4x2Uwflmg 


Edited by stevebedford1969 on Thursday 1st November 13:14

tali1

Original Poster:

5,274 posts

208 months

Thursday 1st November 2007
quotequote all
1900TU is in the 50 Cent / Justin Timberlake video.

stevebedford1969 said:
The Flying Spur is very nice, but have to say there are other good things to view as well!!!!!!

see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na4x2Uwflmg
well spotted but the other "nice things to a view" are a clever distraction from an appallingly bland tune

deltashad

6,731 posts

204 months

Wednesday 30th June 2010
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Drove past Flying Spur in Central Scotland yesterday with registration 20TU. Just wanted to check if it was a press car....

Balmoral Green

41,776 posts

255 months

Wednesday 30th June 2010
quotequote all
tali1 said:
possibly camargue was first to have one in 1975 - but no turbo connection there
As it happens there is. There was to be a Bentley Camargue Turbo, the turbo engine was originally planned to go into it rather than the SZ, and this was some considerable time in advance of the Turbo'd SZ. One car was built and extensively tested.

2woody

919 posts

217 months

Friday 2nd July 2010
quotequote all
there were also other "TU" registered cars.

They are indeed nothing more special than the local Cheshire registration. I seem to remember a lot of HTU, RTU, etc cars as well as just the "TU"-only registrations.

Ironically, the first "experimental" car I was given was registered "STU"

maxicherokee

1 posts

153 months

Sunday 5th February 2012
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i heard that it meant "technical upgrades" and that those vehicles had been tweaked, for optimum performance figures. after all, they were the press cars. i wouldn't push my new rolls or bentley dangerously, just to prove them wrong, would you?

2woody

919 posts

217 months

Monday 6th February 2012
quotequote all
maxicherokee said:
i heard that it meant "technical upgrades" and that those vehicles had been tweaked, for optimum performance figures. after all, they were the press cars. i wouldn't push my new rolls or bentley dangerously, just to prove them wrong, would you?
sorry, but no.

If you collected your car from the factory and it was registered for you then it would almost always end up with a "something-T-U" number plate on it. HTU being the most common from memory.