[Rat Boy]

I can understand that someone using their car at the track may not want their plate shown.  Otherwise, the plate adds something.  Pics without plates (including track pics) look awful - all the car's "personality" is gone.

Edit:  Even if you blank the plates, people will still talk about what they see on the road.  I feel violated!

http://www.caradvice.com.au/7412/2007-lamborghini-murcielago-lp640-review/#comment-96813

Lol. Just looked through the comments on the review there... This one jumped out at me...

hsvhero Says:
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:05 am
lamboz suck ass, hsvs are better

Stupid kids. 

[AshSimmonds]

If you spend any time reading the crap from "contributors" on caradvice you'll just cringe - they have such a great website and reporting for what started as bedroom-amatuers, I feel bad for them having such a vocal idiocy as a following.

[Rat Boy]

And actually on topic now.

When I take photos/videos, it all depends on where (track/road) it is and whether I know the ownder/driver or not.

Track stuff, I don't bother as there is usually an official snapper who won't delete plates anyway and most people I know cover their plates anyway.
Road spottings, I don't bother at all. Unless I know the owner, which then I don't usually take photos unless I know they want some.
Road trips etc however. EVERY plate is covered... As we usually get noticed by police and that usually leads to the press getting hold of the story of "blah blah, so many rich guys in expensive lamborghinis ferraris porsches etc all speeding at over 200mph endangering everyones lives, doing their own cannonball or gumball." Simply put, its annoying. And ruins it for us the next time we go on a euro jaunt.

[AshSimmonds]

Road trips etc however. EVERY plate is covered... As we usually get noticed by police and that usually leads to the press getting hold of the story of "blah blah, so many rich guys in expensive lamborghinis ferraris porsches etc all speeding at over 200mph endangering everyones lives, doing their own cannonball or gumball." Simply put, its annoying. And ruins it for us the next time we go on a euro jaunt.

Really?

Apart from a few random postings on forums I've never seen any particular public interest in our activities.  Although your runs might be more public than ours - I've seen plenty of massive runs on youtube and forums and stuff which just completely make our stuff of up to a dozen or so exotics seem nothing.

[98octane]

A quick Google search revealed there's lots of talk going on on other forums about what cars are parked in certain locations around Oz, including the number plates and details of the owners.  Also found many pictures on other sites of the same cars in the same places with number plates in full view.  This further proves my point that it's pointless to blank number plates.

[AshSimmonds]

A quick Google search revealed there's lots of talk going on on other forums about what cars are parked in certain locations around Oz, including the number plates and details of the owners.  Also found many pictures on other sites of the same cars in the same places with number plates in full view.  This further proves my point that it's pointless to blank number plates.

On hardtuned.net they have a policy against anything which identifies a car/location if it appears to be a regular location - but of course those cars (mostly 90's jap turbo cars) are a much bigger risk for many reasons due to who trawls the forums and where those cars are generally "garaged" (shall we say). 

The cars we talk about here - when you spot them it's not going to be in a location where it's left unmonitored for hours/days/weeks at a time.

[Rat Boy]

Really?

Apart from a few random postings on forums I've never seen any particular public interest in our activities.  Although your runs might be more public than ours - I've seen plenty of massive runs on youtube and forums and stuff which just completely make our stuff of up to a dozen or so exotics seem nothing.

We do a few runs every year. Usually 2 or 3 big trips to the Ring and a much bigger week long jaunt to another European track.

The sept ring trip was about 25-30 cars. About 15-20 were GT3s/RS's, a few Lambos, a few Ferraris, Carrera GT, Mercs, Beemers etc etc... That was a fairly quiet trip. Only one person got a ticket in the entire trip. But it is only a 5 hr drive to the Ring.

Back in July however, we did a big trip to Monza. 40-50 cars. First day, straight off the chunnel, everyone said they were going to take it easy because we all know how bad the Gendarme are... We were in a E39 M5 driving in a group with 1x 996RS, 1x Mk1 GT3, 1x 993 RS and 1x Strad. Straight up to 150-160mph all the way through France. We were expecting 120mph cruising... Not 160.

We got split up at a petrol station so the others drove off without us and we played the catch up game of cruising at 170mph. We drove past them as they were on the side of the road being ticketed... About an hour later we were pulled over for like 110mph or something low like that. The guy driving lost his licence immediatley so I had to drive back to the police station with 2 cops escorting us.

That was day 1. Day 2 went worse.

Majority of our group went through the alps as per our planned route. Keep in mind none of us have any stickers etc on the cars. We decided on a more leisurely route through the Mont Blanc Tunnel (Smart move). The Swiss police set up a road block for the group going through the Simplon Pass. I think about 35 cars from our group were stopped and fined big time. It made it to a few Swiss websites inc. their police site with photos of our group...
Although we were the only car from the entire trip to have someone actually lose their licence... 

I also believe that next year we are either doing 3 Italian tracks or going to Spain for a couple... 

[98octane]

I just had a quick look at the law relating to privacy.  Simply stated, in Australia, there is no tort (i.e. civil wrong) of privacy (see the High Court decision of ABC v Lenah Game Meats).   There is an implied right of freedom of speech in the Australian Constitution and the Victoria Charter of Human Rights reinforces this freedom of expression.

In the UK, there have been cases were paparazzi have been held liable for breach of privacy/confidence, but those usually involved extreme invasions of privacy. There the court weighs up whether the events depicted in the photographs could fairly and reasonably be regarded as private or confidential (Douglas v Hello!).  There is currently no such principle of law in Australia.

In Australia, the bottom line is you can take photos of whatever you like and publish these photos anywhere.   No one can stop you and cannot sue you for this.  In the UK, taking pics of exotic cars on public streets will also be legal but avoid paparrazi style tactics and serious intrusions of privacy.

[Aircon]

you definitely haven't broken any laws, that's just common sense....the only issue is do you want to get beaten up or not

i'd have told them to FO and kept taking photos...but then, i tend to be confrontational.

[98octane]

you definitely haven't broken any laws, that's just common sense....the only issue is do you want to get beaten up or not

i'd have told them to FO and kept taking photos...but then, i tend to be confrontational.

I did keep taking photos, and I've since uploaded them here (albeit with blank plates)