Media | Articles
Never Stop Driving #133: Rules of the Road
A fight is brewing over California’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions rules. The Golden State long has had that power thanks to an EPA waiver, which was renewed last December by the Biden Administration. Not surprisingly, President Trump’s new EPA chief, Lee Zeldin, has different ideas.
Zeldin sent the California waivers to Congress, which means that California’s EV mandates are now in play. This could be the end of the U.S. having two sets of tailpipe emissions regulations—the federal rules and California’s—which have been adopted by about a dozen states. For decades, auto executives have complained about the extra costs, passed on to consumers, of having two sets of similar but different regulations.
I have mixed feelings about automotive regulations. I want as few rules as possible, because they have the potential to stifle engineering creativity and to add unnecessary costs to consumers, but it’s impossible to argue with the benefits that regulations historically have provided, like much cleaner air. Also, since the road is filled with idiots, I appreciate the safety equipment we all enjoy in modern cars. Ralph Nader’s noisemaking about the automotive industry’s lack of safety engineering, particularly as it applied to the Chevy Corvair, inspired regulations that made our cars less stupidly dangerous, a theme I explored in this short film. The industry also dragged its feet on mitigating tailpipe exhaust, but now cars spew so little carbon monoxide that it’s extremely difficult for someone to end their life by automotive exhaust.
Those achievements in emissions and crash safety are now decades old, though, and you have to wonder if we are now in the realm of diminishing regulatory returns. California’s waiver and subsequent rules mandate that 43 percent of new-car sales must be zero emission—electric—by 2027. That’s just two years away. In 2030, that percentage jumps to 68, which seems wildly optimistic.
Then again, I wonder how many believed we could put a man on the moon when President John F. Kennedy announced that mission in May 1961. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface. Different times, different people, and a different mission, but still: Leaders set ambitious goals to inspire big thinking and send people down journeys of discovery and innovation.
Marketplace
Buy and sell classics with confidence
Last year, about 10 percent of new-car sales were EVs, although in California it was roughly double. Those numbers are forecasted to grow as more EV models are brought to market, so is 43 percent that far off? Probably. John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an automotive lobbying group, said, “Achieving the sales mandates under current market realities will take a miracle.” I wasn’t around when new clean-air rules were announced some 50 years ago, but do we think the industry cheered them then?
In any case, the car industry remains in legislative turmoil, which makes it extraordinarily challenging for executives to make long-term investment decisions. Want another reason automotive CEOs lose sleep? Chinese car companies develop new cars in about half the time as Western peers thanks to employee work schedules—even those for white-collar engineers—called “996.” That’s shorthand for shifts that start at 9 a.m. and end at 9 p.m. and are six days a week.
As I’ve said repeatedly in this newsletter, the car business has never been easy, but sometimes the struggle makes for extraordinary cars. Consider the combined efforts of Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, and Saab that resulted in a shared platform called the “Tipo Quattro,” the subject of Jason Cammisa’s latest Revelations video. Allow me to brag about Cammisa for a moment. Like all great storytellers, he does extensive research, uncovering fascinating, largely unknown tidbits. Two stood out to me: To illustrate the efficiency of the Saab 9000 design, he pointed out that the 9000 had 50 percent more interior volume than the Saab 900 but was six inches shorter. Amazing! And while the platform was supposed to save costs by sharing parts among many factories, the engineers naturally couldn’t control themselves and offset the manufacturing efficiency benefits by specifying different engines. Cammisa pointed out that some 30 different engines, from a Ferrari V-8 to a turbo-four, were installed in Tipo Quattro models. Head to YouTube to watch the video and let me know what you think.
Before I bid you a fine weekend, a few comments on last weekend’s Daytona 500. The NASCAR community does a great job hyping the race as its Super Bowl and pours on nauseating layers of nostalgia. Fans tend to say things like, “Well, it just means something to be here,” because the first NASCAR race was held on Daytona Beach. The Superspeedway built there in 1959, however, is a dinosaur. It’s so long, 2.5 miles per lap, and with banked turns, that NASCAR regulations limit engine power to prevent modern cars from running dangerous speeds. So limited, all the drivers can easily circulate the track with throttles wide open, which means the race is one big pack of cars going ’round and ’round. One little bump kicks off huge pileups, the so called “Big One” everyone knows is coming.
At Daytona, the main variables that determine the winner—car setup and the driver—are replaced by the luck of not getting involved in the wreck. Basically, a lottery picks the winner, and I don’t understand why this situation persists. Maybe fans like the crashes. Last weekend, Ryan Preece took a scary tumble but was luckily okay. William Byron won, which undercuts my luck argument because he also won last year. Driver Denny Hamlin said, “It’s just such a f****** crapshoot now. I hate that what is supposed to be our most prestigious race, is luck.” Maybe I’m missing something about Daytona. If so, please let me know.
This newsletter takes a break next week when I’m on vacation, but I’ll be watching this 1961 Corvette being auctioned on Hagerty Marketplace. Maybe it’s time for a C1 …
Have a great weekend!
Larry
P.S.: Your feedback and comments are welcome.
Please share this newsletter with your car-obsessed friends and encourage them to sign up for the free weekly email. The easy-to-complete form is here. And if you’d like to support the efforts of Hagerty Media and receive the award-winning Hagerty Drivers Club magazine, please consider joining the Hagerty Drivers Club.
Find more values
Search for prices of other cars, trucks, vans and motorcycles
Big NASCAR fan and thanks for airing out exactly what the Daytona race has become… It is true in the lottery, someone will eventually win! Enjoy vaca!
Your comparison to landing on the moon is WAY off the mark. As someone who saw it, followed it closely and actually KNEW and worked with some of the amazing people that made it happen I can tell you that producing cars doesn’t compare at all. If you give engineers, physicists, mathematicians and physicians unlimited budget, unlimited personnel, no concern towards profit margin, no concerns towards production of consumer items and only two criteria that have to be met (schedule and human safety) then there’s virtually no limit to what can be accomplished within the laws of physics. Consider electric cars for instance; we have electric-powered nuclear submarines that can stay on mission for extremely long periods with the only limiting factors being human (food, rest, etc.). Unlimited budget, unlimited results. Car manufacturers have to live within the realm of consumers, often unreasonable regulations, profit margins, physical limitations of fuels, availability of materials…
Todays cars use far more computing power than the whole of the Saturn program did. Tghe market realities change drastically if all of the country adopts Californiw standards.
The Saturn program was a government funded project with really no limits on spending.
Emissions are forcing mfgs to continue building more complex and expensive cars for a public that are getting priced out of the market.
We need one regulation. It is just not in the public’s best interest to be forced to buy expensive EV cars or overly complex ICE cars to meet crazy numbers.
Auto emissions are extremely low Today. They are a fraction of what they were. Efficiency is just as well improved.
The government is already doing things like off cycle credits on things like AFM or DOD tgat they can’t even measure tge improvements.
The way I see this is like when the SAE standardized fasteners. Can you imagine if California used special fasteners while everyone else use other sizes. Nothing would have progressed and cost would be even more costly to build or repair things.
We need to get the auto Industry involved here as they deserve a say. Having political people pass laws that could not even check their own oil is wrong.
No one wants bad air but we have a lot of room to work here. We need to help the American people to be able to afford a new cars and we need to help mfgs to be able to supply cars they can afford and even want.
We are a large country and whst works in a Europe will not work here. We are not one world.
Also most other countries like China and Japan invest in their auto industries. This gives them a great advantage over our two remaining American MFGs.
Technically they’re nuclear powered which amazingly California is not too keen on
Agree, Daytona (Talladega, Atlanta) are a bit ridiculous, more entertainment than racing. At least the rain delay moved it to a bright shiny night race. I’d like to see NASCAR move the 500 to the summer night race, back to July 4th weekend. And start the season on the Daytona road course shortly after the Rolex 24. Imagine how many cup drivers would join the 24hr for some track time.
Please address Washington’s upcoming state law about vehicle mileage taxes
Subsidizing the electric car industry and their mandates at the taxpayers’ expense is not the answer. The market based on buyers’ preference should dictate. The choice of electric or gas-powered cars should be based on drivers’ preference not the state government mandates and the Federal government subsidizing.
I agree. It’s high time to end subsidies for gasoline too. Let the price of fuel be the price of fuel–for everyone.
Prefer the Rolex 24 hr Race.
Yeeessssss!
Thumbs UP. IMSA, Weathertech is way more interesting racing than NASCAR, but it doesn’t get the promotion or network television time it deserves.
I appreciate your newsletter and look forward to its arrival. Best wishes.
Agreed regarding too much legislation on vehicles and, well, everything. My Libertarianism aside, there have been great strides toward low harmful emissions which brings the point to automobiles and climate change.
The cited references indicate that CO emissions have been reduced to near zero for over 40 years. That’s great! Safety has improved tremendously as well.
It seems reasonable to have goals and timelines for improvements while leaving the discovery and engineering to the professionals; definitely not the politicians.
Regarding Daytona and NASCAR in general, we fans may simply be hoping that if we wait long enough and keep filling the stands, perhaps NASCAR will eventually let the drivers be drivers again.
Watch some footage of Daytona before the restrictor plate era and you’ll see some great racing with some cars being capable of going faster than others. Was this because of the cars or the nerve of the drivers?
https://classics.nascar.com/video/CNL3ueDObrtW~wcCPBXn_a~kSa0uCpSx
As a former “Factory Race engineer”, I have followed NASCAR closely for 50 years. It was a largely regional sport until flag-to-flag TV came along. With TV came mega sponsors who all demanded a “level playing field” to justify the CPI. Soon it became a ratings race within a car race. The fans saw the race winner while the sponsors read the Julius report to determine the winner. The insurance companies stepped in and mandated slower speeds and things like roof flaps to protect the sport from a repeat of the tragedy in Germany. In the beginning, the OEMs were the driving force but over time they were supplanted by soap, cigarettes, food, and beer. Over time the focus of the sport has become Entertainment. Today car brands have taken a back seat as the sport has morphed into a KIt Car with an IROC format where the driver is the star. Innovation has been carefully metered out with parity as the golden rule. In years past, the final laps boiled down to the two or three dominant cars, where skill, power, and cunning determined the winner. Today as a P1-15 driver you enter the final laps looking at a lottery. Skill, preparation, and power have all been equalized. Sadly today’s fans have never witnessed a Pearson, Petty, Allison duel. Today’s fans were not even born and don’t know any different. Understand; NASCAR has two products: Seats and Broadcast rights. Their business model will not change until the revenue does.
Every article including this one should include the facts about EV’s and there excesive tire polution. Car manufactures are swaping tail emissions for non-regulated emissions including tires. https://www.emissionsanalytics.com/ Found that brakes and tires on EVs release 1,850 times more particle pollution compared to modern tailpipes, which have “efficient” exhaust filters, bringing gas-powered vehicles’ emissions to new lows. Today, most vehicle-related pollution comes from tire wear.
EVs are NOT “zero emission” vehicles. Emissions have been relocated elsewhere from the “tailpipe”. In large portion it is from burning coal.
As for NASCAR. These tracks are fine if you run the right body configuration on them.
Dirty them up and let them draft again in smaller groups. We see it in the truck races as they are not aero and They drive like cars from yester year.
Get them dirty enough and you can open the restrictor plates up. Or go to a smaller displacement engine.
There are ways to do this but it will require specific cars for these tracks. The truth is they already build special cars as it is.
Also get rid of the independent rear axle. They break way to easy and the fans could care less if they are on the car.
The truth is the show in NASCAR has always been number one even back in the big Jim France era.
I love road racing but it gets too little coverage. It is hard to keep MFGs there as it is expensive and lack of exposure.
But we all need to accept there is really not true pure racing anymore. The cost have gone out of sight and technology had made it so regulations have had to tighten things up.
Just wait. I expect Chevy and Toyota to ask for fenders like the Mustang. Ford is using the fenders for down force why GM and Toyota let the air spill off.
Look at the truck series. Same in ARCA. they all have Ilmor based LS engines. They are GM based engines built to spec by Ilmor. So no more engines from he MFG.
I agree with you about the Daytona 500. 4 of us guys went to the 50th anniversary race, we’re from Canada. About the most boring of races I’ve seen. We were in the middle of the backstretch so the cars on the other side looked like dinky toys they were so small, and I think there was only one small fender bender the whole race. Good thing we were at the race friday night. Talking to the people beside us, our seats were by the finish line, they said you have to go to Bristol. The short tracks were smaller and a lot more fun and they had been to Daytona a number of times. Unfortunately, this was the only NASCAR race I have attended but I can say I’ve been to the big race!
I’m for California being out of the car legislation game, especially on emissions. The federal standards is enough, having California in competition creates needless complication and regulation on the industry. It’s bad enough with ever changing federal standards.
Without emission rules (and later CAFE), I doubt we would enjoy universal fuel injection and electronic ignition, a combination that has made cars infinitely more reliable in the quest for lower emissions and higher fuel economy.
Detroit was in the habit of innovating primarily when challenged, by law or competition.