O & Q License plates and their meaning

License Plate Letters

A parade of small imports drives by—all of them some kind of Honda.  But the similarity doesn’t end there.  A closer examination of something else they have in common in a moment—but first, where the similarity begins.

It’s in 17 year-old Daniel Smith’s family garage.  Where he and his buddies pull engines like most teens change cartridges in their PlayStations.

The group includes at least two women and even they speak Honda.  Emily Neal is 19 years old and has her own amped up Integra.  “I have an LS motor and it’s ‘turboed’. If you look down there you can see the turbo,” she said, pointing.

And what is it that binds this group?

“We like to meet up, have fun keep it simple. Stay off the streets, stay off doing drugs, we just like to hang out,“ said group member Mike Bland.

There’s that.  And there’s their license plates— A series of O’s and Q’s—one car after another.

Carlin: The advantage to that is?  DJ Smith: “I don’t know!”  (laughs)

Actually he does know.  And out on Williamson Road, where there’s a bit of cat and mouse with Roanoke police, it gives each car a bit of anonymity.

We ride along with a string of these cars, and a Roanoke City police officer falls in line almost immediately.  DJ describes the advantage to the plates.  “It’s harder to determine what it really says. 50 yards back or so there’s no way you can tell what it really says.”

Bland estimates he’s had 20 tickets for an exhaust that’s too loud.  But he can’t quit the habit.  “I think the cops by far just do way too much harassment going on. I can’t enjoy the car, because every time I start it, drive down the road, boom, I got an exhaust ticket.”

Carlin:Is there street Racing in Roanoke?” Daniel Smith: “Yeah there is.  There used to be a lot more until the cops got involved, but there still is.”

These guys say they don’t race.  But they do push the envelope.  The engines are high revving, the bodies low to the ground, exhausts—tuned—just enough extras to put the cars into a legal grey area that makes the O’s and Q’s an effective symbol of youthful rebellion.

Police tell me all those O’s and Q’s actually are aggravating, but it doesn’t really matter.  They say if they have the description of the car, and the License plate is even close, they can usually find who they are looking for.

Still, these Honda enthusiasts see it as a way to even the odds.

“Yeah if you’re like 10-15 feet away from it they look like nothing but zeros,” said Daniel Smith.  “You get some cops that will just let you go with a warning and they are pretty nice, but then you get other cops that will give you tickets.  No reason at all just to do it.”

So more members of the group are adding OQ combinations- which the DMV says are perfectly legal.

The latest generation of cruisers —in Japanese cars—carrying out an American tradition.

For John’s take on the situation, a poll on whether this should be legal and related links, go to the Carlin Chronicles at WSLS.com.