Jay
You make some pretty good points and I share some of your views. We all tend
to assume the right to fresh air while at the same time polluting it. If you
want to read some thought provoking stuff visit:
http://members.aol.com/trajcom/private/trajcom.htm
However, the issue is a complex one and I believe that the "lets scrap old cars
in favour of new" approach is not always the answer. The production,
distribution and marketing of new cars consumes vast resources and produces
vast quantities of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. It follows that cars
should be maintained in good condition to (a) minimise pollution during use and
(b) be viable for as long as possible. They should then be recycled. It can
be argued that the classic car movement is helping here. What I have no time
for are the obvious piles of crap out there - often visibly unsafe and blowing
more smoke than you can see through.
But the bigger questions to be answered are in what new cars are we putting on
the road and how we use them. There is a growing trend in Australia for people
to buy large 4 wheel drives like Toyota landcruisers and use them exclusively
for city running, and I believe there is a similar trend with 'pickups' in the
US. They obviously use more resources both in build and usage and are
unnecessary. They often carry one person, on trips that could be walked,
cycled or taken in a decent public transit system. Maybe if petrol was $2.00 a
litre ($9.00 a gallon) like in Europe....
Anyay, don't take your Sunbeam off the road yet!
Cheers
Vic
Jay_Laifman@countrywide.com wrote:
> Bill writes:
>
> >Car guys can't resist everything because I believe that
> >most everyone living & breathing in that tinted air should
> >certainly want viable improvements.
>
> I'm going to go out on a limb here and agree with Bill. For some time I
> have been unable to reconcile my concerns with the air we breath, the
> ozone, etc., and my love for driving classic cars. Now don't go tell me
> that a well maintained 50's/60's sports car is clean compared to today's
> cars. It's just not. Yeah there is that theory that simply building a car
> and making all the plastic parts puts out more fumes than my cars will ever
> put out in their life time. But, then so must making all the repro stuff
> that I used to restore my car and replace the tires, etc. And, I can't say
> it's ok because my car rarely gets driven - it gets driven every day.
>
> I will say I don't buy the electric car answer yet since it's simply
> putting the exhaust in someone else's back yard.
>
> Fortunately, the pre '75 cars are still exempt (note '75 cars are not
> exempt). Unfortunately, 75 and later cars were some of the most
> problematic with trying to get smog equipment and engines to mate together
> well.
>
> As an aside and a warning, I do note that the cars that are exempt can
> still be caught if what looks like remote sensors indicate that they are
> putting out more than they should be suggesting that they have been
> modified. So, you better not dump it on freeway on ramps!
>
> Jay
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