EPA Putting Red Light on Amateur Car Racing;
A “power grab” by the Environmental Protection Agency threatens to crash America’s amateur car-racing industry without putting so much as a dent in climate change, warns the chairman of the House Space, Science and Technology Committee.
The EPA’s move to regulate emissions on non-road racing vehicles contradicted agency administrator Gina McCarthy’s earlier testimony that the EPA did not have authority over non-road race cars and motorcycles.
EPA officials said they are “clarifying” emissions law, yet the Clean Air Act has long exempted non-road vehicles used in competition. The agency has not made a similar move against NASCAR or other professional race circuits.
They know not to mess with the donor class.
Wow ! There are THOUSANDS of after-market racing specialty AUTO PARTS businesses and designers that will dry-up and blow-away. Perhaps the EPA wants all these highly skilled mechanics to soup-up the stupid, inefficient, windmills fouling our landscape ? Maybe the EPA is driving (see what I did there) racing designers out of business so they can re-HIRE them to work on the GREEN utopian dream ? Huh … maybe the EPA is smarter than I give them credit for.
Bastards. It looks like the class war is on…. this is an attack on a large swath of voters.
The Nascar crowd wont be happy. They understand whats going on, those amateur race circuits are the proving ground for the professional circuits.
Still, time to stock up on VP Fuels SP1, C12 and C16.
Or tone down the boost and burn 100LL
First they came for…
When concern for the environment, conservation e.i. wildlife management, parks, was taken over by the totalitarian left.
They returned to ancient paganism, where superstition and high priest/high priestess would rule over the masses.
The offerings of the submissive supplicants, now come in form of carbon taxes, cap and trade schemes. While jobs and wealth production is sacrificed on their altar.
They recoil in fear of the sword of the scientific method, and cry out ‘denier, denier’
Meanwhile their totalitarian grasp extends gradually over all aspects of life.
Having elected acolytes in political power in the U.S. of A. and Canada, their cackling can be heard in the background, as they stir their cauldrons in the mist.
Well, in almost all forms of amateur (any) competition there is only one winner. Everyone else in the field is a loser. We simply can’t have that in the brave new progressive world. I’d buy a participation trophy shop if I lived in the U.S.
This warning has been around for a couple of months. The EPA may not quite realize just how strong the objections to this will be. Most of the sporty car types I know in both Club and Vintage racing are fairly conservative (read Republican in the U.S.) and they’re not going to take lightly to this. There are already petitions in circulation and some subtle warning about voting.
The real kicker here is this only affects cars which have been converted from a street-use type of vehicle. Purpose-built racing cars are not affected (YET). But, the impact would be significant.
People flying to Cuba (or some similar place) on jumbo jets for a week on a beach have a bigger carbon foot print than amateur car racers.
NOT TO WORRY !
The self-driving car will SOLVE all this confusion. The self-driving cars will all come in a single model, with the same horsepower, the same color, same suspension, same brakes, the same … everything. It will be THE only auto-driving-mobile available. EVERYONE will be EQUAL. We will ALL be going the SAME speed on the highways … always in parallel. There will be no tailgating. Equality of all on the motorway.
THIS IS … the Socialists DREAM car. FORCING everyone to be … EQUAL. EQUALLY bad.
Oh sure, there will undoubtedly be some “renegades” some “divergent” motorists who will ILLEGALLY modify their government-issue self(government)-driving cars. But they will be chased-down by high-speed drones and captured for reassignment to a desert “education-center”.
And you thought this was only science-fiction ?
Certain regulations must simply be ignored. Pretty simple concept.
If they were serious about cutting emissions, they would long ago have banned all recreational activity that uses fossil fuels. No sport or recreational usage of any kind, no car or bike or go-cart or boat racing, no pleasure fishing, no water skiing, no snowmobiles, no ATVs, no motor homes, no private planes, no highway driving to visit relatives, no flying to Mexico or Hawaii or Europe for holidays, absolutely no unnecessary fossil fuel burning!
As well, no unnecessary usage such as private jets (hello Leo DiCaprio, Al Gore) when commercial fights are available and no globe-trotting by government leaders (hello Trudeau and Obama) for photo-ops and conferences when Skype or video conferencing would suffice. And no flights to exotic locations by enviro-nut hangers-on to global warming conferences.
But if they did that there would be a massive revolt against the global warming scam so they’re doing it incrementally, starting with the least powerful and working up. By the time they get to Trudeau or Obama….oh, wait. Silly me, as ever, the ruling elite are exempt.
As I recall in the 1970’s fuel crisis there was umbrage at the waste of fuel in holding a weekend of cars in (I think) San Francisco.
Evaporated when this was compared with the fuel use of getting the city’s football team around.
Another addition to the “why do they (the peasants) hate us (government/progressives?” list. Face it, the wrong type of people like these races so they’re an easy target. I’m surprised rodeos are still allowed. Next on the list – Burning Man? Classy people watch wind- powered regattas and go to operas. Those activities while not mandatory to attend are usually tax-payer subsidized. A nudge always turns into a shove or hug when it comes to government.
Reminds me of an old joke:
“….in England, “everything which is not forbidden is allowed”, while, in Germany, the opposite applies, so “everything which is not allowed is forbidden”. This may be extended to France—”everything is allowed even if it is forbidden”[5]—and Russia where “everything is forbidden, even that which is expressly allowed”.[6] While in North Korea it is said that “everything that is not forbidden is compulsory”[4]
Choose your level of government authoritarianism wisely, I guess.
This latest attempted power grab by EPA shows just how
fanatical and mean spirited these enviro bureaucrats can be.There is not the slightest possibility of any significant CO2 reduction, should this edict pass, but that’s not what this is about. I see it strictly as a class based attack on Americans who happen to revere automobiles. On the contrary, EPA types despise private cars and all they represent, unless they happen to be of the electric golf cart type.
The number of amateur racers affected would be in the 100s of thousands. NASCAR, NHRA and SCCA are just the tip of the iceberg, there are 100s of sanctioning groups governing amateur racing in USA.
Such numbers of racers and support businesses involved mean there is very little chance of this ever being passed. Still these zealots would act if only they could.
Not since the days of Ralph Nader has the automobile been under such such vicious attack.
… or they could have simply mandated SYNCHRONIZED traffic lights EVERYWHERE in the nation. My tiny little town has more than 50 stoplights. EVERY single BLOCK. At times it takes me as much time to drive 1.5 miles to the freeway as it takes me to travel 35 miles on the freeway. Stop. Go. Stop. Go. Stop. Go. Stop. Go. WASTING fuel, WEARING down my ultimate driving machine. It is a NO-BRAINER to install electronic control systems to coordinate these stoplights to ease traffic flow. But that isn’t what government WANTS. They WANT you OUT of your car. OUT of your FREEDOM machine. And INTO the government’s CONTROL.
kenji:
That’s it exactly. The first move of any Socialist worker’s Party regime is to restrict private automobiles and the freedom they represent.
Here a dingbat like Naomi Klein can actually get her Leap wet dream taken seriously; 12 NDP ridings have endorsed it and the Lewis family is all on board. No performance cars for these people.
In Britain they ban fox hunting and in Obama’s America it’s only natural that they will ban any prole activity that our betters detest. This won’t be their last attempt by any means.
Almost all the stickers you see on professional race cars are for “aftermarket”, amateur car enthusiasts. Multi billion dollar market. EPA may have signed their well deserved death warrant.I would love to see Trump comment on the EPA demise.
It will never be enforced. It’s practically impossible. Like US gun control, it’s never going to happen because the people won’t allow it.
Just to give you an idea of the scope of this thing, see the link provided. All of the cars in Stock Eliminator started out as real cars. Over half of these car owners would be directly impacted by the application of this law, maybe even as much as three quarters of them or more. A stocker of this caliber is a very sophisticated beast, yet astonishingly similar to how it was originally delivered. They are the product of finding a few hundredths of a second a few hundred ways. An EPA smackdown at an NHRA national event would be financially devastating to most of these guys, and literally end the sport. For every stocker out there, there are a hundred “bracket” cars that would be equally illegal, as they are derived from a “real” car. My 1969 Dart would be one of them. Turn up the volume and enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqkJLbxlXSI
I saw a 440 DART go about 120.62 mph about 3/4-into the video …
I also saw a Plymouth Duster ? Really ? with a 6+ sec. headstart. Too funny. Do you think I could drop an 8cyl into an old AMC Gremlin and take it out to the track ?
jeezuz murphy. now where are all those junior driveway mechanic-tinkerers coming from? really. 2 older brothers and a nephew went into the auto repair business that route. this buraucrap meddling is really getting annoying.
just a variation on the tactic of solving one problem by creating thousands more . . . .
This is the same Stupid EPA that contaminated that river in Colorado now they want to regulate the car racing buisnes out of action? Frankly the Enviromental Pertvert Agency needs to be totaly abolished
They are looking for a bargaining chip that they can trade for a Carbon TAX….Hillary will be quick to give them the TAX and claim her powers of persuasion… They have been nibbling around the NFL (Concussion/deflate/switching/whining) & Basket ball…Anything they think may be worth trading…
Trump will make Palin the head of the EPA.. and she will gut the bastards
google Golf GTi Boba, it’ll eat that four four oh. And that’s with a 2 litre
Yes, the 2 liter GTI may seem like an overachiever against the numbers posted by the 440 stocker, but that ignores the limitations of the NHRA rule book. The stocker is running high-10s at 3300 lbs while being hamstrung by such things as the original cast iron intake manifold, stock valves and valve springs, uported heads, stock pistons and compression ratio, and even a stock lift camshaft. Those are only 9 inch tires on those cars. I’m not exaggerating when I call them sophisticated. Some of those guys will have half a dozen torque converters in the trailer, and three trannies with different low-gear sets, plus a big spread-sheet on what combo works at which track. A set of slicks is considered done when the 60 ft time drops off by .01 or .02 seconds.
By comparison, that same 440 Dart combo in a Super Stock configuration is better than a full second quicker. Strangely enough, that combo is not really competitive against other combos that it would come up against in SS/EA or SS/FA, for a variety of reasons. Unlike the VeeDub you mentioned, these cars are built against a very strict set of limitations.
“But if they did that there would be a massive revolt against the global warming scam so they’re doing it incrementally, starting with the least powerful and working up. By the time they get to Trudeau or Obama….oh, wait. Silly me, as ever, the ruling elite are exempt.”
well, except for the whole removing the coal fired power plants offline thing. I think we might notice that.
Even the Europeans don’t bring up anything so stupid. For your motorsports enjoyment, an 80HP Trabant 601 giving an E30 M3 a run for its money at Hockenheim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCDJngP9Sdc