Most racing events that are held are composed of street cars that you were once bought a dealership and converted and enhanced into track ready machines. The EPA is trying to put a stop to this. Once converted, these cars will be strictly put to use on the track and will not see the streets, legally anyway. This new ban that is trying to be passed would put restrictions on every type of car, whether it’s a sports car, 4 door family car, or super car. You name it, and it falls under the “ban” category. It has nothing to do with safety, because believe it or not,  purpose built race cars that once started as a street car are safer than the actual production car. It is because of emissions. The EPA doesn’t want people tampering with the factory exhausts that must meet their emission regulations. The proposed bill states that all cars must keep their original emission control devices in place and are not swapped or changed in any way. This all falls back to The Clean Air act. So, even though the car would not be driven on the streets after the “race car” conversion, it must meet the requirements that a normal street car would. Not only could they ban race car conversions, but they could also go one step further and prohibit the sale of products that can reconfigure the emission control devices within the car.

“the Clean Air Act does not allow any person to disable, remove, or render inoperative (i.e., tamper with) emission controls on a certified motor vehicle for purposes of competition.”

Above is a statement from the EPA’s Clean Air Act.

This has not gone into affect and is still unclear whether it will or not. An updated statement from the EPA pertaining to this is to be expected in July 2016.

Things that would affect this new ban and would be made illegal:

• removing catalytic converters
• remapping a cars tune
• performance exhaust

Along with many more things.

Racing series that would be affected:

• Formula Drift- This is the pro level of drifting in the U.S. The cars that these drivers use all start out as production cars and go under a major overhaul to turn them into the track ready cars they are with many performance modifications that would be made illegal with this ban.
• Rally Cross/ Rally- Like Formula Drift, these cars start out as production cars as well and go under major modifications in order to make them more suitable and competitive for the conditions that Rally drivers drive in.
• Any Weekend Track Day Driver- This ban on emission affecting parts would really put a damper on the weekend enthusiast who goes out to the track and races their car. If the owner wanted to squeeze a little more power out of their car to make it more fun and faster to drive, the ban would prohibit them from doing that.

Without performance enhancing parts, racing would become very stale very fast. There would be nothing to differentiate one production car from another that is the same make and model. It would very much limit the kinds of things people would and could do to their car to separate it from the next person who walked into a dealer and bought the same car. All we can do is wait for the EPA to release another state in the coming months and hope they don’t go through with it.

Sources:

http://jalopnik.com/is-the-epa-trying-to-ban-the-conversion-of-street-cars-1758013542

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/02/09/epa-illegal-modify-car-racing-sema-official/

Oddly enough, this car was named World Car of the Year for it’s high full efficiency and low emission, but it was one of the cars with the device installed.

Volkswagen, a well-known automotive manufacturer, is in big trouble with the EPA here in America. Close to 500,000 diesel models (known as the TDI line) that were sold in the US had “defeat devices” installed within the cars computer. This device was installed into the computer to recognize when the car was being tested for emissions to pass state inspections. The device would alter amount of fuel used during that test in order to improve results during an emission test. The car was fitted with two “modes”. One of which the car would set to during the emission test to meet the requirements set by the EPA. Once the emission test was done, the car would sense that and revert back to its normal driving mode where the amount of NOx (nitrogen-oxide emissions, which is linked to causing lung cancer) released into the air was increased by 40% over the EPA legal limit, but improved the fuel efficiency greatly. VW did this to boast about their cars and how they were able to have excellent fuel efficiency and low emission output. But the real emission output was masked because it was never able to be properly tested because of the “defeat device”. Models such as VW Jetta, Golf and Passat TDI as well as a small number of Audi’s were affected by this.

VW has since admitted to their cheating of the system and the CEO in America has stepped down. The EPA has also ordered the halt of sales of the cars that were affected by this device until further notice. VW is likely is do a recall of all vehicles affected by this and fix their wrong doing. In states where smog tests are required for registration, such as California, owners may not be able to renew their registration until the problem is fixed, because after all, they would be cheating the system if not fixed.

This has affected VW numbers greatly. 1/3 of the market cap has depleted and the stock price has also been driven down. Since this all started in November 2015, VW has reported losses every single month. It is estimated that VW will spend close to $7 billion fixing their cheating. The US Department of Justice has the ability to sue VW for almost $38,000 per car that was fitted with this device. This would equate to an $18 billion law suit. Now, it’s unlikely that this will happen, but it is being thrown around.

After all this, VW is compensating its customers for the inconvenience and straight up lying to them. Every person who purchased an affected car is receiving a $500 prepaid gift car, along with $500 that can be used at any VW dealership to put towards another car, service, or parts. Along with this, the owners are being give free 24 roadside assistance for the next 3 years.

Sources:http://blog.caranddriver.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-vw-diesel-emissions-scandal/

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772

Automatic vs Manual transmission: which one really is better? Both have their respective pros and cons. Each person will have their preference on which one they were rather have in car. Some cars only come in automatic, while the opposite is true for some cars that only come in manual. Most cars though, the buyer will have the choice between an automatic and manual. The amount of manual cars sold in the US with a manual transmission was only 6.5% according to USA Today. Let’s take a look at both the pros and cons of each.

Manual Pros

• They are more fun to drive. There’s something about going through the gears and shifting yourself that’s exciting. It makes you feel more connected to the road and engaging in driving. Driving a car with a stick gives you a better sense of control over the car.
• The price tag is cheaper than an automatic. Cars with manual transmissions, on average, are anywhere from $900 to $2500 cheaper than an automatic car.
• Along with a cheaper price tag, repair costs are generally less expensive on a manual transmission. They are less complex when trying to fix compared to an automatic which makes them easier to repair and drives the cost down. Depending on your driving style, the most common repair done to a manual transmission is the clutch, and even that is done every 100,000+ miles.
• You need both of your hands to drive it. One on the wheel and the other on the gear shifter. It keeps you more focused on the road and shifting into what gear you need to be in. There is no time to be distracted by your phone or other things in the car.

Manual Cons

• There is a learning curve. You can’t just get into a manual car and drive it. Well, some people can and pick it up the first time, but most people need to learn how to drive it. It’s not as simple as an automatic where you just put it into Drive and go. There’s a whole technique that must be learned when trying to drive a standard and learn how to change gears and get going from a stop. Once you have that down, it’ll be like muscle memory and you won’t even think about it when driving.
• The next con of a manual is driving in stop and go traffic. This is by far one of the worst parts of having a stick and the most annoying. You must constantly keep your foot on and off the clutch and starting and stopping again…over and over and over.

Manual Myth

• Manual cars are more efficient. In some cases, this is true, but in most cases, this is false. In the past, manual cars did have better fuel efficient by quite a bit, but as auto transmissions became more advanced, this margin of fuel efficiency between the 2 decreased to almost nothing.

Automatic Pros

• They are easier to use. The transmission does all the work for you. All you need to do is put the car in the gear of choice and drive. There is no worries of having to shit through the gears yourself.
• It’s more comfortable to use. There are only 2 pedals to worry about and you can just put the car into drive and do just that. It keeps you concentrated on the road.
• Easier to find. Most cars being produced today are coming out of the factory with an automatic transmission.

Automatic Cons

• Typically more expensive. Between the cost of the actual car, which is more than the manual, and the repairs, automatic transmission cars are more expensive. For repairing the cars, there is more within the transmission that can break and when it does, the repairs are not cheap.

When buying a car, you must weigh the pros and cons of a manual transmission and an automatic transmission. If your budget is tight and don’t want repair costs to be through the roof and don’t mind shifting gears, then a manual is the right choice. If you can spare the extra $1500 and want to just worry about driving and nothing else, than the auto is for you. It all comes down to preference and what you’re looking to get at out of the car.