What is the situation if you have a new car, made in, say 1991, but which has never been registered for the road and is either used just for track days or is kept in storage?
If you decided to register it for the road in 2001, say, does it take a 2001 plate?
Guessing, but I think it would get a 1991 reg’n number…assuming type approval/SVA enables it to now be registered for the road.
Probably get a 1991 similar to classic yanks that get brought over, they seem to get the correct year plate as per year of first build
Assuming that there is evidence that the chassis is a 1991 chassis then DVLA will issue a ‘period’ registration for the car provided that an authorised/recognised club has assessed it’s authenticity.
I do this for the VSCC on a regular basis and we usually manage to get period registrations even for 1920s/30s cars.
There’s a lot more info at DIRECT.GOV and you can view the list of authorising clubs HERE
Thanks for the prompt response. Relates to Ferrari F40 that passed me at speed on M6 on Sunday heading north towards Cumbria. I can’t believe that I could have mistaken it for one of those horrid replicas. Looked and sounded just right. Maybe I misread the plate . . .
I’m pretty sure if its the first time its registered then it gets the plate for that year (2001 in your example) and gas to meet those years regulations. hence the rush to register all the unregistered 340r’s a few years back.
with clssics then if you can prove the history you can get a plate relevent to its FIRST Registration
gav
As Gav says it depends on your needs, if you can pass all the relevant laws for a later year and the car is still “new” you could register it for that year, but the car has to still be new 
I think you’re correct there, Gav, good post - there was indeed a rush to get the last S1 Exiges registered before 31st December 2001.
as an example lotus have a lot of track cars that they use for testing, they then auction them on but they might of been used for 2+ years so are a couple years old and have say 20k miles on it but they then are registered for auction of the year they are sold
Steve, I have a friend with an F40. What was the reg?
Bloody hell, now you’re asking. 51*
Sorry can’t offer more than that. But, as I said< I might have misread it completely and it cd have been ?51???
Glad to know that you move in such monied cirles!