In the world of motoring, five million dollars can buy you quite a lot. One could acquire five Ferrari SF90s, seven Lamborghini STOs, or 209 Kia Picantos.

For one Hong Kong motorist, the lure of a couple hundred reasonably priced Korean subcompact hatchbacks was no match for a very particular number plate. Steam Boiler

The South China Morning Post reports that a number plate has sold for HK$25.5 million, or approximately $5.2 million. The plate was sold as part of a Lunar New Year auction earlier this month in Hong Kong, with 49 different plates going under the hammer.

And what was on the plate in question? The in-demand plate featured just one character – ‘R’. Bidding on the unique plate kicked off at HK$5,000, with more than 60 bids following before the gavel dropped.

READ MORE: * Gone in 60 million seconds: BMW owner removes car parked for two years at airport * A parking space in Hong Kong just sold for $1.8 million * 'IAMGOD' personalised plate selling for $99k - but are they a good investment? * Billionaire forks out $2.45m for NSW licence plate No. 4

Why the value? Well, it’s been widely reported that in Chinese fortune telling the letter R is believed to be lucky. This could relate to the letter’s connection to the colour red, a colour associated with success and good fortune.

The letter R is also thought to have been in demand due to its connection to motorsport. Many of the world’s most coveted race cars and performance cars have an emblazoned (and often red) ‘R’ in their name.

Predictably, a majority of the most bidded on plates sold at the government auction, held at Wan Chai, were linked to numbers considered lucky in Chinese tradition.

These included several plates themed around the numbers ‘8’ and ‘9’.

Funnily enough, the $5.2 million sale is not a record in Hong Kong. That honour goes to another single-letter plate – ‘W’. It sold early last year for HK$26 million.

And, neither sale is a patch on the world record price paid for a personalised plate.

Crane Mats Perhaps inevitably, the title goes to a motorist in the United Arab Emirates, who reportedly paid 52.2 million dirham (or well over $20 million in today’s coin) for the plate ‘1’ in 2008.