To: Triumph List, Inet
On Thurs, 11/16, Brian N. wrote on the subject of making a Calif.
car smog legal:
Many 79 Spit owners keep the stock stuff ready and able to bolt
on and pass test, but run the Weber down draught for performance
and reliability. Also, it will keep your car from going up in
flames, as the Strombergs were wont to do. My 79 passed recently
with 0% CO (1.2% allowed) and 4ppm HC (150 ppm allowed). I had
all the stock stuff on it, tuned up right (ran like sh*t), and a
new catastrophic perverter (catalytic converter). A local
muffler shop put the exhaust and converter together for me for
far less than catalog parts.
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The depressing part to all of this is that despite all of the
improvements to vehicle emission systems over the last quarter
century, L.A. still has pretty sh*tty air. I work in downtown and
look out from high in a skyscraper over the crap everyday. On the
one hand, I abhor any post-1967 LBCs (or any other fun,
collectible, sports/performance cars for that matter) because they
are bogged down with a lot of ill-conceived, poorly deisgned
"solutions" to the Clean Air Act and the CARB (Cal. Air Resources
Board) regulations. I simply refuse to buy a car with emissions
controls (except for the Honda daily driver and the Bronco which I
tend to regard more as appliances than something I look forward to
driving).
I suspect that there are quite a few owners of early to mid-70s
LBCs and other sports cars who do the same thing that Brian does -
remove and save the stock setup, install performance equipment,
then every 2 years spend an entire weekend swapping the whole
setup just so the owner can drive to the nearest certified smog
check station, pass the test, drive home and reverse the whole
process (that is what you do, isn't it Brian? -- don't worry,
nobody on the list will spill the beans). Query -- have you ever
had the car checked with the performance set up on it just to see
what the emissions are without the stock parts? My guess is that
it may pass even with the performance parts on it (of course, Cal.
law requires that the tester visually inspect the setup and
confirm that it has not been tampered with, so I doubt you could
do this on your bi-annual "official" visit).
Sadly, the available "pool" of older (pre-1967) LBCs and other
sports cars is slowly dwindling away. All the more reason to
encourage people to collect and save them. My God, this is really
depressing as Hell -- have the "golden days" of motoring passed?
If so, where was I? Comments, thoughts anyone?
Ross D. Vincenti
64 Spitfire Mk. I, (sold the Datsun Roadster) and a cat named
Flounder
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