A very notable and documented plate. VIP1 was first owned by...
A very notable and documented plate. VIP1 was first owned by Kilkenny businessman Bill Finnegan in the 1970s who put it on a Jaguar XJ6. A replica of the number plate was used on the ‘Popemobile’ for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland in 1979. Finnegan with the real VIP1 moved to london to work for Gulf Oil but he could not swap his Irish plate onto a british car. So he sold his Jag with the VIP1 numberplate for £5,500 only to see it sold at auction for £92,000 in 1989. Roman Abramovic bought it for £286,000 in 2006. Now the plate has recently changed hands for 2-2.5Million to Peter Waddell who made his money in the car trade.