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Re: I NEED A DEAD CAT! (4KQ senior project) long ramble



I've been reading the "pissing contest" with some interest, as both an 
ardent environmentalist, and an owner of a 200TQ that gets on down the road 
with spirit!  It seems like most of the respondents had good points to make 
- I had to pay that damnable out of state fee on my old 85 5000S even 
though it passed smog with flying colors, as have both of my later type 44 
TQ's.  But that doesn't change the fact that we maintain our cars to a 
higher level than the general public, or Huw's comments about gubment 
mandated change for reasons of fuel economy driving the technology 
improvements.  (anyone recall the cry of doom from the auto industry in the 
70's and 80's regarding emissions improvements?)  The auto companies fuel 
economies have steadily increased on a basis of pounds of car moved per 
gallon of gas burned (think SUV's and the average car GVW larger than in 
the days of tuna boats).

Still, when I take BART from the East Bay over to Oakland there are few 
days when I can't see that brown ooze over the Peninsula and South Bay, and 
forget about seeing Mt Shasta or Lassen from Mt. Diablo as I've been told 
by parents of friends that picnicked there in the 50's.  And forget about 
smog in Mexico city, lets talk the entire Central Valley where our nitrous 
and nitric oxides, sulfur oxides, and residual hydrocarbons waft over to 
block out the views of the Sierra's most of the year (and kill the trees) 
with the exception of apres-storm (a good part of it comes from the Bay 
Area folks, where our air quality management districts are not as tough as 
where it finally manifests itself as unhealthy air).

Now, however,I have to get back to the subject line in this thread and the 
original post - this post didn't sound like a techie trying to squeeze the 
last bit of usable energy out of a gallon of gas in a well tuned and 
maintained auto, but a kid trying to do the cheapest stuff to go faster 
with an old car.  My old Alfa ('67 GTV) with dual DCOE sidedraft Webers was 
a blast to drive fast and hard, but those double pumpers made pretty big 
clouds of black smoke when slammed open.  Yeah, they were unburned 
hydrocarbons for the most part, but that's exactly what a catalytic 
converter changes to CO2 and water.  As to sulfur compounds mentioned, 
that's a function of the sulfur content of the fuel, not the cat. Nitrous 
and Nitric oxides are a function of temperature and pressure during the 
combustion process and aren't changed much by cat's.

It seems to me its kind of like dumping all of my garbage in the back yard. 
 It doesn't really affect the world in any big way, just the local 
groundwater, the local property values, the neighbors animals that drag the 
garbage back home, my neighbors opinions of me and where I crawled out from 
under......

So fire away, I'm an unrepentant eco-groovy thinking globally and kind of 
acting locally.  I may be no Euel (sp?) Gibbons chewing wild hickory nuts, 
but I am firmly and unequivocally on the side of breathing the best air 
possible on my mountain and road bike adventures in a state with over 20 
million people and drivers even if I have to suffer a minor reduction in 
HP.

Sorry about the long ramble, but at least its not torsen related....

Btw, want unlimited horsepower and no smog regulations?  Buy a race car and 
go fast where its legal

'90 200TQ in a sea of automobiles in California, home of the whacked out 
liberal left-coaster!