[TR] emission standards?

[Randall]

> I am thinking that anyone who fears that our cars will be legislated out
> of existence is being overly paranoid.  If there were no emissions
> standards in existence when the cars were built, the politicians cannot
> come up with new emissions standards for them.

I'll disagree with that, Joe.  When I bought my 59 TR3A here in California,
the law at that time required that it pass smog inspection before it could
be registered (even though CA had no smog standards in 59).  The law has
since changed, but AFAIK it was never found to be illegal or improper, only
ineffective.

Oddly enough, my TR3A failed the first time, literally because the exhaust
was too clean!  Being somewhat paranoid about the test, I had tuned it as
clean as I knew how; which the automated test station interpreted as a leak
in the exhaust.  Afterwards, I reset it "by the book" and it passed with
flying colors.  Obviously, the standards that were applied were many times
higher than new cars were expected to meet, even then (1984).

>  It is an example of an "ex
> post facto" law which in our country is illegal.

I'm no lawyer, but I believe "ex post facto" refers to punishing someone for
doing something that was not illegal at the time they did it.  There is no
legal principle that says they cannot pass a new law, making a future action
(eg operating a polluting car) illegal that was not illegal before.

That is particularly clear here in CA, where they are in the middle of
requiring that heavy trucks and ships be retrofitted with emissions
equipment (much like they did cars back in the 60s).
http://tinyurl.com/bhp9t9

> I am no lawyer but I certainly don't think that most of us have anything
> to worry about.

I wish I could agree <G>

Randall