EPA Seeks to Prohibit Race Cars

[70 copo]

First avgas then next will be leaded racing fuel. This regulation will effectively scrap most affordable aircraft and many vintage designs. In summary ground them permanently.

This would be like forcing you to LS your 1969 Z/28 in order to just continue to operate it on the street.

This is a slippery slope we are on when a regulatory agency has this much power.

Please do not make this thread political. Increasingly it appears we are having trouble discussing anything serious on the forum without forum rules getting looked at and entire threads deleted as a result

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/...aviation-fuel/

[x33rs]

It's why I've built all my engines to run fine on the pump gas we have available.
Did that decades ago. Didn't even have to neuter the engine to do it. My wife daily drives our 69Z as a result, still with 11:1 compression. No need for modern engine swaps.

[70 copo]

Originally Posted by x33rs

It's why I've built all my engines to run fine on the pump gas we have available.
Did that decades ago. Didn't even have to neuter the engine to do it. My wife daily drives our 69Z as a result, still with 11:1 compression. No need for modern engine swaps.

Understood. Hardened Valve seats etc... but it is not just that, it is how does the EPA know your engine has been fixed/compliant?, these are the questions. As for aviation there is Lots of 70+ year old airplanes (and engines) out there flying around.

New certificated engines are crazy expensive as it is.

Most civilian planes will be able to use the new 100 octane Unleaded fuel, but the real high performance racers, acrobatic flyers and still flying WWII aircraft won't be able to fly as there isn't a 112 octane replacement fuel available for their high compression engines. For 30+ years the oil companies have tried to find something even 1/4 as efficient as tetra ethyl lead is at raising the octane rating of gasoline, and failed. 100 octane level can be reached mostly by ultra refining of gasoline, but going higher is going to take something as effective as tetra ethyl lead or switching to something other than gasoline. Methanol has the necessary high octane rating, but not the proper vapor pressure to work as an aircraft fuel.

IMO...We need to get in on the regulatory comment period to insure proper carve outs are permitted for the older hi compression engines to allow for authentic operation.

[x33rs]

As of right now, we don't do any EPA testing where I live and never have. So not really sure why I would be concerned whether the EPA knows my cars run on currently available pump gas. My advice would be to get your classics off that expensive stuff that is getting harder to find, and apparently may go nearly extinct from the sounds of it.

I started building pump gas friendly engines a couple decades ago. I got tired of the hassle of mixing fuel, or even finding it. Even 20 years ago that was expensive, and airports were already cracking down on guys bringing in cans to fill. I can't even imagine now.
That all got old pretty fast back then. Couldn't drive the car for any distance at all, and never really got to enjoy them as a result. Then we got tired of new cars and the direction they were going so we decided to drive the classics daily. That caused me to rethink how the engines were built and the changes I needed to make so I could just pull into any pump and fill up. As engine builders got smarter I learned a lot, experimented a lot. Now we can have a pump gas friendly engine that makes more power than the original engines did, and they aren't snarly to drive either.

We'll continue to drive them as long as there is pump gas available, and I can afford it. Hopefully I'll be gone before it gets to a point it's unobtainium, and if I'm still around, I guess I'll either have to get very proficient with my bicycle or go back to riding horses.

[70 copo]

While I have been posting about AVGAS (and its implications for the potential availability of racing fuel) lets focus only on cars in this individual post:

Just to be clear, for anyone who may be new to this thread please be advised that if the EPA has its way --you will not be able to alter the factory built specification of any automobile engine - including engine internals meaning-any modification (fuel friendly intent or not) could well render the engine non compliant.

Post 87 on the previous page of this thread - is instructive as to the big issues in play here.

[70 copo]

Good news to report!


This IS the biggest SCOTUS ruling of the session and that's why it was last opinion released.

The EPA LOST!!!!

Backstory:

https://www.grid.news/story/science/...limate-change/

SCOTUS BLOG:

https://www.scotusblog.com/case-file...ection-agency/

My understanding is that this ruling could possibly reign in the entire administrative state,—not just the EPA.

Guns:

ATF: Can't ban unless specifically written as a law (no nebulous/arbitrary interpretations that make things criminal).

Climate/Cars/Parts

EPA: You have to regulate only what is allowed under law for the individual, not make blanket policies.

Indeed. A ruling that limits the executive bureaucratic administrations power to dictate fiat laws at will would be an enormously huge win. Far more than anything we've seen in our lifetimes I would think we now perhaps have the tools to push back against these rules for the first time in history.

[Lynn]

YEP. I am sick of bureaucratic morons LEGISLATING. So many times they are WAY over eager, overreaching, and just plain stupid, without taking into account the consequences of their actions. I was jumping for joy when I read this. BTW, I have no problem with Congress legislating in favor of clean air. I probably lean farther left than most on this site when it comes to that arena. But it needs to be done by law, not by regulation.

Now, we just need to get our State courts to do something similar on the State level, as today's SCOTUS decision only affects the fed.

[70 copo]

Today it's a diesel truck. Perhaps in a few short years OUR cars.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/diesel...ibextid=oUeriK