The voters (environmentalists) are part of it. Buisness is an other big part of it. Face it, these politicans get rich through these emissions laws (or at least they did back when the sh_t started to hit the fan in the early 90's....). Companies were getting tax cuts for destroying junkyards of older cars, if you want to sell any aftermarket parts in CA, it must be CARB approved- which means you have to prove to CA that your part will not make emissions worse, and/or make the car put out less emissions (so much for inocent until proven guilty.....). Hell, do you have a Summit Racing Catalog handy? They sell performance parts and also restoration parts for the classics (their main market is the ol' big block generation of models). Look in the air/fuel section. Summit sells these fuel containers- just like the refill containers you can buy at gas stations for if you run out of fuel or need to refill small two stroke engines at home (like lawn mowers). Summit's are the same size as the ones at stations. Different color plastics (you can buy blue, red, black, white, etc). Illegal in CA. The state of CA says that these containers could be used to bring illegal fuels into the state for use in hot rods and classics! The roadside emissions stations are like the truck wieghing stations on highways. Their main target is ricers (modified civics and similar), but they also pull over enough other "normal" cars in an attempt to aviod law suits. They will stop just about any pre-1980 car they see and any modified looking car. If you fail? Depends on how badly. I hear they will either fine you, impound the car, force you to take it off the road, etc. Someone on one of the other car lists I'm on knows a guy who was restoring a 60's Mustang. He had two of them (V6 and V8 versions). The V6 model had the better body. He restored it and put the V8 in there. CA impounded his car and sold it. He lost it and got no money for it in return! This was because it wasn't the OEM engine! 90's Imperial owners with the 3.3 can't legally stick the 3.8 in their car if they live in CA, even if it was offered in their model's year- despite the fact it puts out no more emissions, uses not much if any more fuel, etc. And as far as CA tampering laws go, that's just as bad. Say you do your own exhaust work, and need to put a stainless steel exhaust on your show Imperial. If you remove the cat- even so you can just replace the old exhaust parts and will put the cat back in, they can legally fine you almost $3k! --- Mike Pittinaro <mechimike@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > I don't understand why they continue to pick on > this > > small group of car > > owners. Probably because there aren't many of > them, > > they don't have much > > political power and Senator Florez can make some > > easy points with the environmentalists. > > Hitting the nail on the head, so they say. A point > I > sometimes mention that helps counter the > environmentalists is that it is often poor people, > who > cannot afford a new car, who drive older cars on a > regular basis. These people would take a hit in > their > wallets if they were forced to scrap or spend > thousands on their old cars. On the flip side, the > remainder of people who own old cars have them as > showpieces, and they generally aren't driven more > than > 500 to 1000 miles per year. > > I was very surprised to hear abut CA testing cars on > the side of the road, esp out of state vehicles. > What > do they make you do if you fail, leave the state? > To > me, this is just as ludicrous as saying another > state's driver's licenses are not valid in CA. > > On a final note, if these dunderheads in the state > legislature would put as much time and effort into > their mass-transit operations as they have into > picking on a tiny minority of car owners, maybe they > could make real progress towards cleaning the air > and > unclogging the roadways in that state. > > ===== > --Mike Pittinaro > > Otis Davidson > inveterate tinkerer > ridicules haiku > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more > http://taxes.yahoo.com/ > >