I passed! Take that you Cali-tree huggers!

blacky3.2 · 12-22-2004, 03:28 PM

It's me again. You might remember my moment of weekness last month. I said I was going to throw in the towl on my 911. As I do every 2 years now... I change my mind. I think it is time to put on the test pipe and pollute some air. What do you guys think of going all carbon fiber with a red carrera decal on the side( and a Duck). I hear carbon fiber tends to break down in the sun. I wonder if there is a UV coating I could apply to it. Anyway, I'm sorry for my moment of weekness... and no, I didn't ditch the wife. I locked her up in the basement.

Jim Sims · 12-22-2004, 04:39 PM

Before the tree huggers:

blacky3.2 · 12-22-2004, 05:21 PM

That's a nice picture of San Fran. Tint it rust yellow and it could be LA.

Jim Sims · 05:33 PM

No, it's Los Angeles in 1943. Earliest known photograph of LA smog. Jim

Hugh R · 06:03 PM

Actually, it was the tree huggers who got us great gas mileage and horsepower. Remember when you changed spark plugs every 5-10,000 miles?

I worked in the air pollution control business, first as a regulator, then as a consultant for about 20 years. The problem with the free market system when it comes to pollution is that it is indeed free to you, but not me. You can belch out pollutants out of your car without paying for it (absence regulation) and it costs you nothing, but it cost me (society) in health problems. Same thing with water pollution, except it flows downhill. Tree huggers have their place for sure. People lose sight of the fact that they have, in most places clean air and water because the "tree huggers" pushed for it decades ago.

Its the reason I won't take the cat off my Targa, even though I'd get improved performance, and I could put it back at smog check time.

randywebb · 12-22-2004, 08:06 PM

I guess a "moment of weekness" lasts 7 days?

Oh, BTW -- loggers were the first tree-huggers. To figure out where the tree wants to fall, you first go up to it and hug it and look up. Then you know where to notch it and set the chocks, etc.

Steve87-911 · Steve87-911's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Hugh R
People lose sight of the fact that they have, in most places clean air and water because the "tree huggers" pushed for it decades ago.

Its the reason I won't take the cat off my Targa, even though I'd get improved performance, and I could put it back at smog check time.

Yup. Me too.

daka · 12-23-2004, 05:33 AM

Back in the early 80's I "imported" a number of BMW 323i's (E21 not brought here by BMW NA) and a some 911's. At the time these cars were brought in there was an exemption from EPA, one each, blah blah, anyway every one of those cars passed NY emissions with a good tune up. I think that the real problem is that most "non enthustiat types" don't take care of their cars....at the time the BMW and Porsche people over pampered their cars and any one of them would pass "naked".
Sure we need inspection for the other 99% of the people....who basically "just gas and go" we don't need no "stinkin tune ups".

avendlerdp · avendlerdp's Garage

If you are not smart enough to get the performance you want and stay smog legal then perhaps you should "upgrade" to a 67 Chevelle with a primer door, Holly double pumper carb, and 3 burned valves, for that "real" performance feel. Honestly, is a high flow cat that restrictive? As a member of the LA air breathers club I'll thank you for not adding to the already bad air. The extra 3 hp will not make you more of a hero on the streets or in the canyons.

Alex

randywebb · 12-23-2004, 12:26 PM

Well said.

blacky3.2 · 12-24-2004, 07:28 PM

You guy's are getting a little out of hand on this. It was a joke. I'm sorry I like my porsche that much to spend $2,000 to get it smogged legally. I could have spent $100 to get it done the illegally... but I guess you guys really don't like your porsches as much as your hybrid honda, toyota, etc. It sounds like you guys have deeper issues. This is a porsche BB not a political thing!!!

avendlerdp · avendlerdp's Garage

Who knew!!

Jim Sims · 12-25-2004, 06:45 AM

The thread began with an "ad hominem" attack in the title. "ad hominem - Latin for "to the man," attacking the arguer and not the argument (e.g., The Sierra Club is a known bunch of Cali tree huggers so their objections to air pollution need not be taken seriously). A report of your success passing the emisssions inpection with details on how you did it would have been more civil and useful. Don't knock the hybrids; once the technology gets in the hands of the enthusiasts I predict a little clever electrical engineering will begin to produce configurations that will quite humble the turbos - like 1000hp at the rear wheels that make maximum torque at zero speed. A project with a 911 chassis is coming to mind: a couple of 50 hp DC motors, some capacitors, some switching gear, a battery and a 50 hp IC engine/generator set. Blacky may your 3.2 run well and clean in the coming year. Happy holidays - time to go play with the electric train. Cheers, Jim

stlrj · 12-25-2004, 07:45 AM

I could have yanked the cat off my 3.2 that runs my 74 911 but have not for all the reasons mentiond above.

Besides, I have a thing for clean air.

Cheers,

Joe

Brother · 12-25-2004, 08:28 AM

The smog in Cali is usually from a temperature inversion between the valleys, mountains, and ocean. It just caps off and traps the smog.

Gas mileage has not improved because of tree hugging regulations. In fact, standards possibly drove the industry towards SUVs. Gas mileage has improved because of technology. Fuel metering in a more exact way improves power, drivability, and comfort in the car.

This issue boggles my mind. The same people who cry out for conservation buy "BRAND NEW" hybrids from a factory that belches out more fumes, pollution, and waste than an 85 El Camino. Then it is shipped over on a super sized cargo ship. At the same time, they could have bought an existing car and driven it off of vegetable oil that is cleaner than bio diesel.

I'm not anti-enviromental at all, but there are several ways to skin cat here. Many other cities have no regulation on smog and what not besides the federal cat requirements, and they are not horrifically polluted. Other places in the world have no laws and are complete S&$ Farms. (Korea, China, India, Brazil)

Cars are not the big culprit. They are a small piece of the pie. Aviation is a MUCH bigger polluter. So I say that we should all go to straight pipes and boycott Delta and United!!!

Gunter · Gunter's Garage

Sierra Legal Defence Fund is my favorite charity because I value Air and Water. What is killing you most is the diet: White flour, sugar and lard, in other words: empty calories. Half the stuff in grocery stores is not even edible, just garbage! There are very few things served up in Restaurants that are nutritious or of any benefit to your body. The effects of mindless consumerism is rapidly catching up with us. Enjoy the Porsche while you can.

blacky3.2 · 12-25-2004, 09:20 AM

This has to stop!!! This is the last time I say anything on this topic. Can we please get back to Porsches. My car runs cleaner than most other cars. I love my car and do most of the work myself. I was just a joke!!! The main reason I bought it was to work on it and bring it back to its old glory.

...by the way a have a guy in Dallas that designs battery systems. He has 3 test mules that I got to drive. One was a vespa that did 100mph, the other was a golf cart that did 85mph and last but not least was a go cart with top speed of 150mph.

Merry Christmas!!! Let only talk cars

beepbeep · 12-25-2004, 09:27 AM

Most people forget that it was those pesky regulations that pushed the research forward. Car industry has very little incitament to do reasearch otherwise. Lambda-sensors, EFI, wide-band lambda, high-efficiency combustion chambers etc. was mostly pushed forward by tree-huggers. It is very irresonsible to just put your head in the sand and believe that it's "somebody elses worry".

Brother: Brazil is leaning towards using ethanol as it's main fossile fuel. Good thing with ethanol is that CO2 being burned goes around in circulation.

randywebb · 12-25-2004, 09:53 AM

Back to Porsches....

PAG has been very proud of their clean/green record for at least 25 years. Some details are in Aichle's engine book.

I agree with Jim. And maybe he knows something in particular - as his employer sometimes does green energy research. Everyone who cares about sports cars should look up some of the articles about GM's skateboard design. All the motorvator* stuff is inches above the floor pan, making a very low center of gravity.

And speaking of Honda hybrids, the rumor is that either they or Toyota are about to release a hybrid sports car - i fyou think about the torque relations of the IC engine and elec. motor, they are highly complimentary...

So, I think the future for sports car abilities is very bright. What won't be there are all the nice noises we all like in our cars, esp. in the old ones. So the evolution from '73 RS to 2004 RS will continue and accelerate in both ways.

* in their case, an electric fuel cell design

And Happy Holidays!

aways · 10:28 AM

The problem with the "tree huggers" is not that they want to protect the environment, it is that they have gone off the deep end in their zealous campaign to "save the planet". They have no sense of moderation. If the hard-core members of these groups had their way, we'd all be walking to work, or riding a hybrid bus wherever we went. Owning a 20mpg Porsche would be a "hate crime", with or without the cat being operational.