Purpose of front license plate??

[TSiWRX]

^ I'm most definitely *NOT* "the man," by any means. My wife and daughter constantly remind me that I'm nowhere near that level of awesomeness.

 

OK, no, seriously -

 

Yes, a "less-reflective" plate will help, and yes, you're exactly right, for the rear, you're screwed anyway, unless you can go with a good set of active jammers - there's just so much more "retro-reflective" area back there, that anything short of going all-out, balls-to-the-wall, in terms of countermeasures, is just FTL (yes, even *some* effort can buy you a little time -and I won't go so far as to discourage anyone from pursuing any means available- but given the typical rear-encounter setup, it's a losing proposition, realistically speaking, without proper protection).

 

IIRC, a fellow hobbyist up in Canada, LittleOverPSL, once used an LTI Marksman 20/20, in "Test Tone" mode - which corresponds a higher audible tone to a more reflective signal, and a lower audible tone with a less reflective signal - to demonstrate, on a qualitative basis, how much more signal was returned from a standard, metallic, issued plate, versus a "non-cooperative" alternative.

 

A CR8APL8 is a simple, readily available, replica plate made of fiberglass/plastic, and is non "retro-reflective" in nature, and thus cuts down on the LIDAR signature of this point-source vulnerability. However, just using it, without any other consideration towards the other passive weaknesses on the vehicle will return with little to no realized benefit, in the real world, as the LIDAR isn't a true point-source, but rather, is conical, and spreads wider as it travels farther from its source. Given that a front plate barely covers even a 1-foot-square area, and that nominal divergence for police LIDARs makes the beamwidth about 3-ft. in diameter at 1000 ft., well, you can imagin - it's like having a small shield covering your head, while leaving the rest of your body exposed to the onslaught of "a million arrows."

 

Also, the CR8APL8s aren't perfect - depending on the complexity of your State's plate design, the aesthetics may be anything from just a little off, to totally unacceptable. For example, while Ohio and TX's standard tri-color may be reproduced decently faithfuly (yes, the lettering font is a little off, but unless you compared identical plates, one CR8APL8 and one genuine issue, right next to each other, it's something that's not immediately noticeable - erickonphoenix, a noted hobbyist in your area, even had one of his previous "Lab Vehicles" pass a detailed visual inspection by a couple of his local enforcers, with his CR8APL8 in-place), the complex graphics of the NY-State plate makes for a failure scenario.

 

The same failure happens, if there are any embedded holographics - the standard TN plate is a good example.

 

Finally, with the CR8APL8s, as they are often not cut to proper sizing, a plate frame is typically needed to properly "disguise" its nature. In areas where even a plate frame is illegal, well, that's a problem....

 

And that's where, like you said, a high-quality photocopy comes into play. One fellow hobbyist on RD.net, in NY, did just that to his plate, and laminated it. It's virtually indistinguishable from the real-deal, visually, and was a much better replica than that available from CR8APL8.

 

As for angling the plate down or off to the side?

 

I don't think that anyone has yet tested this - either quantitatively or even qualitatively - not all speed-detection countermeasures hobbyists, surprisingly, are automotive enthusiasts (and, of course, the reverse of this applies, too), so no-one has really given this much thought. Some of us car-nuts, particularly those with front-mounts, tend to do this to get the front plate out of the incoming airstream, but certainly, aesthetics play a role here, too.

 

Hope this helps!