Steve Hoult said:
>The reason I mention this is becasue this week I finally had to
>replace all
>of my exhaust system. When I pulled the cat down, low and
>behold, the PO had
>gutted it. The exhaust system has now been replaced, but I don't
>see how
>that will help with lower pollution since it was almost
>unmeasurable before.
We need to clear up a major misconception here: it seems that
lots of folks believe that, just because a car passes the state-
(or city- or county- ) mandated sniff test that it's not a
polluter. To my knowledge, none of these tests actualy place the
engine under load and cycle it in a way that approximates real
driving. That's gonna change before long, though, at least in CA
and major urban centers around the country. New, far more
complete, emission tests are in the works. And if you think a car
with a gutted cat will pass the full EPA test cycle, you're
dreaming.
Now, let's think about something else: you can't require a car to
have a catalyst in SP that didn't come with one in the first
place (like my car, for example). So, to be effective and
comprehensive, any emission-related rule revision in SP will have
to mandate either a) original emissions equipment all in place
and fully functional (i.e., Stock-legal engines - that's a real
winner) or b) modifications limited to CARB-exempt aftermarket
accessories like chips, airboxes, etc. This type of accessory is
not widely available, so a relative handful of cars would reap
the lion's share of the benefit from the latter alternative.
EITHER of these alternatives will have a potentially devastating
impact, in ways it is not now possible to predict. Presently
competitive cars could easily become dogs, and vice versa. Every
classing decision ever made in SP will potentially have to be
reconsidered, and it will be literally years before all the
classes finally stabilize. Then there's the financial burden that
would be placed on present SP competitors who have counted rules
stability in developing their cars. By the time the smoke clears,
it's likely that many present SP competitors would decide to play
elsewhere. This is NOT the way to adhere to the stated core
values ("planned rules evolution").
As difficult as it appears to be, the issue of turbo cars in SP
seems also to be moot. What class(es) do they dominate? When has
a turbo car won Nationals simply because it had the turbo? I
understand the desire to preempt competitors' attempts to
increase boost by surreptitious reprogramming of the ECU, but
surely there's a better way to approach the whole issue. So far,
I don't see that turbo cars have hurt SP, and they've certainly
been around long enough to do so if they were such a big threat.
My $.02
Jay "SP STILL ain't broke, why do we keep trying to fix it?"
Mitchell
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