EPA Attempting To Stop Conversion Of Street Legal Cars to Race Cars

[gsmith2424]

http://jalopnik.com/is-the-epa-trying-to-ban-the-conversion-of-street-cars-1758013542

This will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[GoFaster]

US citizens ... Find out how to submit your comments to the EPA and tell them that this will destroy grass-roots motorsports. There is no such thing as a car, truck, or motorcycle used at the grass-roots motorsports level that did NOT start out as a road-legal vehicle. If the EPA intends to enforce this for vehicles driven on the street only then they should put that in writing and allow an exception for vehicles that started out as road-legal but are no longer driven on the roads.

I can't do it because I don't live in the USA, I'm not a US citizen, and therefore I have no legal standing.

 

[GoFaster]

Found out some more.

Here is the best explanation that I've seen of the ramifications of what the EPA is proposing to do:

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/imag...tm_campaign=LeMons+Law+Brief&utm_medium=email

This is a link to a White House petition - which evidently they have to answer to if it has more than 100,000 signatures - which it has already received in less than 24 hours. But, it would be better to have overwhelmingly more than 100,000 signatures.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...posal-prohibit-conversion-vehicles-racecars-0

I'm not a US citizen, so I can't (truthfully) do it, but muchos gracias if a few US citizens do so for me.

 

[KERMA]

signed.

currently the 2nd most popular petition.

 

[turbobrick240]

Just signed the petition. Should be getting an email verification. Hopefully this epa proposal goes nowhere.

 

[chaoscreature]

Signed

We also need is a petition to make it easier for aftermarket companies to pass things through CARB. For instance: with the right loading you can make a 200cell performance cat CLEANER than OEM. I'm not saying it would be cheap, but it's completely do-able.

 

[meerschm]

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/02/09/epa-racecar-emissions-illegal-update-official/

Amendments to the clean air act in 1990 made modification of emissions on cars manufactured for street use illegal.

 

[GoFaster]

That article is somewhat outdated (in 6 days!). The entire section that makes it illegal to modify emission controls on street cars only applies to vehicles driven on the highway (i.e. roads). If you take a normal car and modify it into being a race car, it is no longer driven on the highway and that whole section no longer applies. The proposed wording changes ... change that.

 

[meerschm]

you have an incorrect understanding of the current US law.


It is true that enforcement for individual cars is focused on inspections tied to registration in parts of the country where clean air standards are not met.

Any modification of any car made under an approval that the car meets standards for emissions is against the federal law, and has been for 25 years.

the idea that there is an exemption for "off road use" is not backed up in any law.

I would be happy to understand if this has changed.

the proposed wording is a clarification, not new law.

 

[GoFaster]

Unfortunately, the document that 24HoursofLemons had on line has been taken down. It explained what the problem was.

The current situation with regards to on-road vehicles being used off-road is ambiguous. The new "clarification" makes it explicitly illegal.

If you want "ambiguous" ... the whole section that this new wording is in, is supposed to apply only to heavy duty vehicles, but the way the wording is written indicates that it applies to everything.

If "ambiguous" allows (sorta) continued operation of motorsports as they have up until now, and the "clarification" makes it explicitly illegal, we have a problem.

 

[meerschm]

There is no ambiguity.

There is just a difference between the law and what is enforced.

enforcement takes resources, and these are applied where they do the most to achieve the clean air which is the whole reason for the law.

 

[GoFaster]

That is the EPA's interpretation ..

If that is the case, then what is the need for "clarification" if not to screw people over?

If that's been the case all along then why change it?

If they do want to change something, how do we preserve grassroots motorsports? Forget NASCAR and Indy, they have black and white exemptions. There is not one Superbike in WERA, CCS, or MotoAmerica that was not built starting with a street bike. (it's actually required by the rules) There is not one rally car anywhere that was not built starting with a street car. There is not one circle-track stock car (grassroots, not NASCAR) that was not built starting with a street car.

 

[CNGVW]

There is wording in the EPA Tear 3 passed useful life expectancy 120,000 miles . we use it in CNG design and testing of systems. They have no way or plans to test car system passed that mileage.
The EPA is just a paper dragon . Look it took till 2015 for them to catch VW TDI scandal . They know some thing was wrong in 2008!! It took a school with a grant of $65K to catch it. The EPA budget is billions a year and still can not get the job done. I thought they where here for clean water too. 2 years of LEAD in Flint water and a bunch of sick kids they need to fire all of them and start over.

 

[KERMA]

OMFG are you kidding me

https://marcorubio.com/news/epa-race-cars-modified/

 

[meerschm]

https://marcorubio.com/news/epa-race-cars-modified/

come on.

this is primary political show.