Jay Leno’s star power wasn’t enough to persuade a California legislative committee to pass a measure to allow owners of classic cars like him to be exempted from the state’s rigorous smog-check requirements.

Imagine being rich and famous and this is your political cause. What an effing creep.

    • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      How about no.

      ICE cars shouldn’t be common. Cars in general shouldn’t be as common as they are. A handful of guys running around in old restored ICE cars are far from any real problem. They’re putting a lot of work into keeping them going (and it’s often more work than money).

      From an engineering perspective, there’s a lot of fascinating tweaks you can make to an ICE. How does spark timing affect things? Cam timing? Changing bore or stroke? The engineering behind it has a long history that’s worth preserving. It just needs to go away as a mass market thing.

      • StinkyFingerItchyBum@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        You wanna drive it? Convert to EV.

        You wanna preserve history, put it in a museum. I make an exception to your point if it is a museum’s functional demo model that runs on biofuels.

        • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 days ago

          Why? What is really the problem? The pollution is negligible to the point that it’s not even worth discussing.

          They should be driven. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but they’ll last longer if they’re driven. What happens is that when parts break, they get fixed, and that means there’s a market available for spare parts. You can daily drive a Model-T Ford today because they’re still common enough to have a parts market.

          • StinkyFingerItchyBum@lemmy.ca
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            2 days ago

            The pollution is negligible to the point that it’s not even worth discussing.

            Huff on a tailpipe for a few minutes then come back to tell me how insignificant it is. ICE needs to die.

            • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              2 days ago

              Yes, what of it? ICE lawn mowers are a bigger source of pollution than a handful of people running around in classic cars a few sundays per summer.

              There is no problem that needs to be solved here.

    • Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com
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      4 days ago

      Actually that is becoming more popular. I just saw one last month that gutted a V8 engine to hide an electric motor. Looks like an ICE from the outside. It was pretty neat!

      It’s the battery packs that hold these conversations back. Older car suspensions just weren’t built for that kind of weight.

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Yeah but for a classic car you only drive on weekends, it doesn’t need to go 500 miles on a charge.

        • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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          4 days ago

          That’s the rub, many of these things are doing 1-2000 miles a year some less. Their emissions are peanuts compared to daily commuters. The same argument for small batteries is also the argument for letting them be in the first place (with strict mileage limits IMO).

          Also EVs are heavy but the body and chassis are really light and often aluminum or composite. Old cars are often pretty heavy, but it’s because they’re made of thick steel with much thicker body panels (18 or even 16 gauges modern 22 gauge steel body panels). Adding batteries and keeping the weight balance even with small batteries is really tough).