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Date:         Wed, 3 May 95 12:05:31 PDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         smaher@ball.com (Steve Maher)
Subject:      Re: New Jersey emissions law (was: Why are so many....)

On May 2, Ron Lussier wrote:

>Then fix the problems when you find them.

Right on. I couldn't agree more.

>Like it or not, older cars are horrible for the environment.

Wrong-o. They do put out more emissions than new cars, but if one follows the advice you gave above, the difference is small. 600ppm HC is tiny compared to, say, a smoking clunker. Or even compared to spilling some gas when you fill up.

>(California has a weird emissions law that becomes more lax with the age of >the auto. The annoying side effect is that there are lots of old cars on >the road which legally put out as much smog as 10 newer cars.)

Calif laws are weird, all right, but not for the reasons you cite. I cannot put a new Holley 4-bbl on my Mustang, tho I can rebuild the old Motorcraft, whose emissions are worse due to its lack of adjustability. Same for a Weber progressive on my bus instead of the MISERABLE 34PICT-3.

Re the old "as much emissions as 10 new cars" complaint, notice that ten times a teensy amount is still a pretty teensy amount. The smoking clunkers are a very different story-- perhaps you should direct your complaints in their direction? And since there are very few pre-80 cars on the road compared to after-90, for example, your total emissions are still falling bigtime, and will continue to do so.

As long as we poor oldie-buffs are willing to keep our "horrible" cars in first-class shape, I hope you will find it in your heart to allow us to do our thing, since in fact we are hurting nothing.

Steve Maher smaher@ball.com '71 VW Transporter '66 Mustang Coupevertible

P.S. Might I predict that, 20 years from now, people such as yourself will be screaming about those "horrible" 1995 cars, which pollute 10 times as much as their new 2015-year models? It's reasonable to expect that that ratio will be true by then. But the '95s will be polluting the same amount as they do now. You'd better junk yours now, to avoid being "horrible to the environment". There's always bicycles. ;)


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