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As best as I can tell, NBs all came with the front licence plate mounted above the grille, perched right at the nose of the bonnet, as per the attached pic.

However, I noticed that the NDs have them located in front of the grille, which IMHO makes for a much better and cleaner look. Is this something you'd recommend for the NB? I've got a skinny NSW plate and it'd definitely look better relocated over the grille. I can't see this would create issues with airflow because it's not like the air won't flow around the plate anyway, but would welcome thoughts from anybody here...

It will be fine to do, many have done so without a problem.


Yes, it will block some airflow, but as you said the air will flow around it (not as much as if it werent there, but it's not like you're fully covering the intake)


A lot of people seem to make out that the MX5 has a super fragile cooling system that's so marginal that even the slightest bit of radiator covered up is a cause for overheating.

Assuming you dont have any underlying issues, and dont have a heap of crap in the mouth blocking it, or have mods that generate more heat (turbo), then you'll be fine.

Just dont go mounting the plate, a mesh grille, driving lights, and air horns all at once in the same space.

What grill? That would be the mouth of the car.
Put in the mouth mounted to the top via hinges. Thus when you pick up speed it swings back allowing more airflow and avoiding head-on camera traps....

You’re not serious with anything in that comment are you?


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Just toying with you all!

hks_kansei wrote:Assuming you dont have any underlying issues, and dont have a heap of crap in the mouth blocking it, or have mods that generate more heat (turbo), then you'll be fine. Just dont go mounting the plate, a mesh grille, driving lights, and air horns all at once in the same space.

Well I do have an after-market Lockwood mesh grille, and Fiamm triple-air horns, but apart from that it's stock standard, and I suppose I can avoid over-crowding the nose by giving up on my plans for 007-style machine guns or a missile launcher...

Thanks for feedback on this, I suspected airflow would not be a deal-breaker here but it's always great to have confirmation from the experts and enthusiasts

FWIW, I've owned this 2000 NB from new and done very limited kms – would you believe barely 70,000! - due to it being an evening and weekend driver over generally short distances since after buying it I moved from the Blue Mountains to the lower northside, my commuting habits changed and now I work from home - but it's always super-enjoyable to drive! The hardtop came off the day I picked up the car and it's never gone back on, and the droptop is dropped 99.9% of the time... so it's in pretty good nick, stock-standard apart from a few very minor non-performance tweaks and necessary parts replacements, and my intent it to own this one until ~2025.

There is no where decent to put a front plate on an NB8B... offset covers the foglight.. in the mouth blocks airflow.. maybe we could stick them under the mouth like a chin spoiler?

I ran slimline plate in the grille opening i.e. bracket with slimline down not up - without any problems at all - the NC has plate in same location i.e. in front of grille opening . You often see NBs with marks on front panel from parking jut a little too close.

Plate position on my MX5's

Very nice, especially on the NC!

As far as doing it.

From memory you can literally just flip the factory plate holder upside down.

It may need a small trim and a pair of new holes drilled to not sit too proud of the bar and look silly.


In saying that, my plate is mounted off to the side on one of the tow hooks.
but my grille/mouth is half filled with fog lamps anyway.