We like to bring you occasional updates about people who have shared their stories in the pages of our free magazine, The World of Personal Number Plates. We also like to share tales of the country's most impressive or famous number plates. This new year has given us the opportunity to revisit a couple of Regtransfers' old friends, who have recently got together.
VIP 1 is one of those rare registration numbers endowed with a combination of appealing aspects that raise it to another level. The exclusive connotations of the initials VIP, the coveted number 1 and a history of association with famous people mean that it has pretty much everything that makes the best plates so valuable.
One man who certainly appreciates top-tier private registrations, like VIP 1, is Peter Waddell, whom we met in issue 39 of our free magazine, The World of Personal Number Plates. Peter, a car dealer and helicopter enthusiast from Kent, appeared in the magazine with his BIG 1 personal registration, and shared the story of his rise from early life as a "Barnado's boy" to career success as a top BMW car dealer.
When Peter bought his wife a new Ferrari Purosangue as a new year's present, he decided to look for the perfect private number plates to go with it. VIP 1 seemed perfect for wife Gabby, who Peter says "thinks she is a queen!"
With VIP 1 on her car, Gabby joins an elite "club" of former owners and custodians. The number was displayed on the famous Popemobile when Pope John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979. It was the first time an incumbent pope had ever visited the country. We related the tale of VIP 1's tenure on the holy conveyance in an early issue of The World of Personal Number Plates.
VIP 1 was later acquired by Regtransfers. In fact, we have owned and sold that famous registration twice!
In addition to the pope, it is widely reported that VIP 1 was owned by Russian oligarch and billionaire Roman Abramovich. Mr Abramovich is probably best-known in the UK as a former owner of Chelsea FC.
Of course, all private registrations companies have to be mindful of privacy when publishing information about specific registrations and their owners, but Peter Waddell himself has reportedly said that he paid "north of" £2 million pounds for VIP 1, which would, if verified, make it the most expensive UK registration ever sold.
That's quite a purchase for a man who was once a minicab driver, but, as Peter has demonstrated, success can begin anywhere.
