[Jeff Higgins]

This does not seem to be about emissions, Hugh. The video stresses the street racing involvement of cars modified in this manner. It concludes with the old public safety justification for this kind of enforcement. I would imagine these cars do not pollute very much more, if any more at all, than they do in stock form. Certainly their low numbers, even if they polluted slightly more, would have a negligible impact on California's air quality. With your ready admission of your Wong chip installation, and your impressive collection of old polluters, I would suspect you feel that way about your own cars. I know I do about mine. The enthusiast sector has a pretty minimal impact on the air we breath.

Teaching officers that this is all about street racing just does not sit well with me. Making that judgement based on the outward appearance of the car is getting on a pretty slippery slope. Just what does a cop have to see to have a "reasonable cause" to pull some one over? A fart cannon and some window stickers? I'm sorry; that simply should not be enough.

Things are better now, but this used to be a way of life for us bikers. With all the yuppie weekend warriors the heat has come off almost entirely, but they are almost all running modifications that would have gotten us stopped 20 years ago. I guess it's o.k. if "respectable members of society" ignore vehicle regulations. Back "in the day" I used to get stopped several times a month when some cop wanted to hassle me; their "in" was obstensibly illegal vehicle modifications observed as I rode by. Funny, I never failed their up-close scrutiny, but that was never good enough. There was always something else... I just hate to see this happening to another targeted group.