EPA moves to ban street/ race cars

[victimofGM]

Originally Posted by Me007gold

Wouldn't this make NASCAR, and all other forms of legitimate racing illegal?

NASCAR hasn't been stock cars for decades

[PDD]

Instead of arguing about who makes more HP or why your sport is better than my sport, how about trying to understand what the EPA is trying to accomplish with it new laws.

Since most weekend racers who are using street cars on the track, you are talking about drag racing because it is the most popular form of weekend racing. Weekend road racing which I am familiar with puts more cars at risk of collision and generally weekend road racing for the serious guys does not involve late model street cars.
Driving schools are not competitive so removing emission controls would be pointless. On the other hand a lot of people head to the drag strip on weekends with late model emission controlled cars. High performance catalytic converters are available for those who are serious about weekend racing so the only logical conclusion for removing cats is to run higher octane leaded gasoline that will allow the computer to be tweaked and increase performance.

So IMO the only reason for the new or enforced laws is to keep the weekend racers from using leaded gas. Leaded gasoline ruins cats.
Ultimately the EPA would like to see all leaded gasoline removed from the racing scene. Enforcement and or new laws is a start.

I don't think a govt. conspiracy is the answer, the EPA is pretty clear that it want to clean up the air.

They did it with NASCAR and some of the other professional racing organizations. Now they are going after the weekend amateur racer.

If you want to argue about who makes better engines you can start a thread about that if you like .

[jimj]

Originally Posted by phlinak

Exactly, and together all of those vehicles are spewing massive amounts of pollution into the air and the environment, which is why the EPA is finally taking steps to address this.

Oh the HORROR! How about we go after all the planes those very same two faced pols fly on? Those dump more pollution into the atmosphere than a race car does.

I bet you're ok with electric cars though right? Oh yeah, those clean, environmentally safe electric cars...

As you vigorously nod your head yes answer me this, "where does that electricity to charge those clean cars come from"?

ANSWER: Dirty,nasty, environment killing, abhorrent COAL...

[Dd714]

Originally Posted by phlinak

Really??!!

So you're telling me that thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of amateur drivers will choose to risk their lives and the lives of countless innocent people, losing their driver's licenses, getting their insurance policies cancelled, having their vehicles impounded by the police, serving time in jail/prison, etc., all because they are not allowed to race their vehicles without anti-pollution hardware.

Dude/Dudette, that's really weak and if you believe that, then you must not think very highly of the character of amateur racers.

Hey you just supported another reason why this legislation should not be supported - safety and the need for increased local law enforcement to curb the increase in the illegal street racing scene if, in fact, the EPA clamps down on local race tracks (we don't know if that's the intent).

And yes, clear examples (as detailed by the other poster) exist showing that when local race tracks and drag strips are closed, the illegal street racing scene is increased. Likewise, some local government bodies have actually supported the opening of race tracks and strips to curb the illegals. So, YES REALLY, and throwing in a few emoticons like you do doesn't make your argument logical.

But look, the "impact on the environment" is a non-issue. There are 60 million registered vehicles in the US, I would guess the number of amateur racers number less than 10,000. This side discussion on environmental impact is immaterial. I'm more concerned about the impact to the hobbiest, the participants and observers to ametuer race car driving, in his or her "pursuit of happiness". That's material.

[halberto9]

Originally Posted by phlinak

WTF??


Please explain how this does not impact the environment.

Of course it has an effect the environment, but the impact is so miniscule as to be meaningless. As another poster speculated, 10,000 vehicles out of 60 million is a drop in the bucket, and if the cars are restored to street/smog legal before going back on the road then let them spend their time and money having some fun.

[SilverBulletZ06]

Originally Posted by phlinak

Polluting the air and the environment is not and never was a constitutional right (freedom) but nice try.

Freedom to redress a violation is though. Right now you could, and people have done this, make a car with ZERO EPA emissions that would get better mileage and less emissions then the EPA regulations, but since it's not "Approved" you are in violation of the law.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by halberto9

Of course it has an effect the environment, but the impact is so miniscule as to be meaningless. As another poster speculated, 10,000 vehicles out of 60 million is a drop in the bucket, and if the cars are restored to street/smog legal before going back on the road then let them spend their time and money having some fun.

That's not allowed if you're using anything other than the enviro-nazis approved horse and buggy. Unfortunately the whacko PETA nazis have a negative opinion about using a horse (it's torture) so I guess you'd have to substitute a human which is WAYYY down the list of popular animals (like at the bottom) and those particular humans that you'd use to pull the buggy would of course have to be white males because as we all know white males are racist/sexist animals, the lowest form of life, below amoebas for certain.