Re: Emissions...%-{

[healey@lerc.nasa.gov (jim healey)]

>
<big snip
 I guess they figure if you want more horsepower
>> you should have bought the deluxe model.  And the politicians just go along 
>> with this drivel in the name of saving the world (sorry, I meant planet)
>
>I don't understand.  If it were so easy to add HP with no other adverse
>effects, the manufacturers would do it.  Sure, in the old days, one
>could add headers and change mufflers and get free horsepower.  But how
>many engines then put out 100 HP/liter (e.g. the S4)?  Most modern
>German cars already have header-type exhausts _and_ larger pipes.  Many
>even have multiple cats, so the increased HP obtained by bastardizing
>the exhaust system will come at the price of noise and/or air
>pollution.

Whoa John, Sorry I hit a sore spot.  OK the issue for me is that Clean air act
can come along and essentially say that anything the factory does that 
maintains emissions below a certain level is ok, but if I want to do a 
similiar conversion for far less money then it isn't.  They shouldn't be telling
us how to do something, but rather what they want done (in this case
maintain emissions below a certain level). I can gladly live with that.
Couple this with an active system that determines the emissions of cars 
that drive by (and such a system already exists) and we can police the real 
polluters.
>
>If car manufacturers were at all capable of stalling progress, we'd
>still be driving around on bias-ply tyres!

Not stalling progress - merely forcing more of us to use their part 
sources.
>
>While all these pollution regulations do sound ridiculous to those
>living in less-populous areas, they make sense to us NJ residents.  In
>fact, the county in which I live and work is one of the many which
>exceed federal pollution limits by >20%, and believe me, this is a
>problem, especially on hot summer days.  Since there are still many
>older, high-polluting vehicles on the road and nothing can be done
>about that, 

Something can be done.  Increase municipal taxes on very old cars. Of 
course this would not be a politically smart move.  This gives added
incentive to remove the polluters.  We aren't talking fair or nice just
effective.

>
>The basic problem is that the low price of gasoline does not reflect
>the total economic cost associated with its consumption, which many
>analyses have shown to be over $5/gallon.  

Is this relative to the older cars, or the newer cars (like the Saab that can
clean up London's air), or perhaps even outboard boat engines
(where 1 hour of use = 2500 miles of new car driving, based on recent 
study)

>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>John Greenstreet, Senior Engineer           (jgreenst@motown.ge.com)
>Martin Marietta Government Electronic Systems    Moorestown NJ 08057
>WPI Class of '75, Temple Class of '94
>

Again I'm sorry to open this can of worms, but I just think the government
doesn't know how to write a fair regulation.

No harm no foul, just :-)

jim h


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