Jamie Sculerati wrote:
>That's not entirely true -- the SM rules do require vehicles to
be legally
>registered for street use.
That means that they are required to have cats.
> In some places, that mandates retaining the cat,
No, in ALL places that mandates retaining the cat.
>because you can't get a registration without it.
Federal law prohibits modification to the emission control system
on _any_ car driven on public roads. Individual states do not
have the option of repealing Federal safety and emission
regulations within their borders. A state may make laws that are
more stringent than the Federal ones - as California does - but
they may not go in the opposite direction.
Some states do a relatively thorough job of determining if a car
remains in compliance with Federal law (or even more stringent
state laws) before issuing a tag. The odds are much greater that
a car that has been registered in California is still actually
legal than, say, a car registered in Alabama. That does _not_
mean that removing catalytic convertors is legal in Alabama. It
is a Federal crime, punishable in _any_ state. If you doubt this,
I'd suggest you contact the MV department in Alabama and ask them
if it's OK to remove the catalytic convertor from a street-driven
car.
Having gotten your car registered is not, by itself, proof that
the registration is legal. It may simply mean that the
registering authority didn't verify your car's legality. This is
the case in a number of states.
I'm not trying to claim that an SM car would be DQ'ed over lack
of a cat, but the present wording of the rules, taken at face
value, would lead to that.
Jay
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