Sunday, February 21, 2016

The EPA Crackdown on Vintage Racing Cars Isn’t What You Think

BOLD RIDE

Copyright © 2016 Bold Ride LLC.
 
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The Environmental Protection Agency regularly freaks people out by making proposals that ban the things people love in the name of the environment. The latest group having a panic attack thanks to the EPA is those who convert road vehicles into race cars.

A 629-page proposal was published last July and includes an amendment to an existing federal rule in the Clean Air Act about road vehicles with emissions controls. That rule prevents anyone from messing with that emissions equipment in any way, even if the vehicle is set to be a dedicated race car.

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The law gives people two months to comment on the proposal, but it came and went without anyone noticing until now. It wasn’t until SEMA sent out a press release saying the EPA wanted to ban converting vehicles into racecars that anyone even realized this proposal existed, but is it all that bad? No, it’s not quite as bad as it seemed from SEMA’s statements.

According to ArsTechnica, the EPA proposal does ban removing or tampering with emissions equipment, but that’s already the law.

 The only change is clarification that the same rule applies even if you swap the engine from something like a tractor and put it in your race car. There hasn’t been federal enforcement of this rule even though its there, and the EPA has said their goal isn’t to destroy your racing dreams, but keep defeat devices off of public roads. Take a deep breath, and relax.


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