Starting the engine in 1st gear, cracking the front license plate

TL;DR don't get distracted when starting the car

I usually start the car before I get in. That time I got a phone call just after turning the key, but before pressing the red button. After a few minutes, knowing that the fuel pump was likely running, I cranked the engine without checking if the gearbox was in neutral

It was obviously not in neutral, as I usually park the car in 1st gear in order to prevent the handbrake from sticking to the brake drums when I leave the car in the garage for the week (or more).

The engine fired in a fraction of a second, with the ECU diligently keeping a steady 1000 RPM with the front of the car crashing into the random cardboard boxes that are between the nose and the wall, the front right wheel somewhat climbing on some box, the rear wheels skidding on the slippery pavement.

It was quite the spectacle.

Very luckily, it only costed me the front license plate. Saving me some weight as the 3mm plexiglas did weigh 216g and I've replaced it with a stamped aluminium plate that's only 156g.

As the nosecone was splattered with dead bugs stuck behind the license plate, and as I though the hard edges of the aluminium plate would grind into the paint, I quickly designed and 3D-printed some conical spacers. One side of the spacers has the diameter of the rivnuts (8mm I think), the other side a bit larger than the screw head to better support the thin metal.

(spacers get the nose clean from bugs and free from scratches)