We don’t delve into politics here unless it is something that directly has an impact on the lives of our readers and no matter what color state you live in or what side of the aisle you support the words below are chilling and bad. The EPA is going to seek to prohibit the conversion of on-road vehicles into race cars. We don’t have to tell you how bad this would be for the high performance industry, the aftermarket, and the world of sportsman and even professional auto racing. SEMA is actively working on stopping this and they are employing all means necessary. We are sharing this to keep you informed and to keep you to date. As any news develops from this we will share it with you.
Our blood runs cold when we read stuff like this and we know yours does too. Read the announcement below and read it slowly. Read it twice if you have to. Share it. Copy and paste it, do whatever you have you have to do to tell every living and breathing person you know about this so when the time comes that we can raise our voices we will. We have to.
Chad Note: This is bad shit. If the EPA has it’s way we will no longer be able to make ANY vehicle sold for public roads into a race car. No more sportsman drag racing, no more X275, no more Drag Week or Rocky Mountain Race Week, no more Chump Car, no more hobby stocks, no more skid car, no more figure eight racing, no more SCCA, NO MORE RACE TRACKS!!! If there are no street cars and bracket cars to race each week at tracks, because they are now illegal, the tracks will close. Like tomorrow!!! Literally every aspect of our hot rodding world would crumble. It’s biblical how bad this would be. Click the links at the bottom of this page and sign the petition. It requires you to put your first and last name, email, and zip code. You have to put an email because this is a real petition and they need to verify you are a real person. It takes 30 seconds to sign this thing. Do it or you will have your BangShift card revoked. Consider yourself warned. SEMA SAN is fighting for us, we owe it to them to sign this petition. We need 100,000 signatures and currently have just over 45,000. So get after it!
EPA Seeks to Prohibit Conversion of Vehicles into Racecars
SEMA To Oppose Action As Threat to Modified Racecars and Parts Suppliers
Washington, DC (February 8, 2016) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a regulation to prohibit conversion of vehicles originally designed for on-road use into racecars. The regulation would also make the sale of certain products for use on such vehicles illegal. The proposed regulation was contained within a non-related proposed regulation entitled “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles—Phase 2.”
The regulation would impact all vehicle types, including the sports cars, sedans and hatch-backs commonly converted strictly for use at the track. While the Clean Air Act prohibits certain modifications to motor vehicles, it is clear that vehicles built or modified for racing, and not used on the streets, are not the “motor vehicles” that Congress intended to regulate.
“This proposed regulation represents overreaching by the agency, runs contrary to the law and defies decades of racing activity where EPA has acknowledged and allowed conversion of vehicles,” said SEMA President and CEO Chris Kersting. “Congress did not intend the original Clean Air Act to extend to vehicles modified for racing and has re-enforced that intent on more than one occasion.”
SEMA submitted comments in opposition to the regulation and met with the EPA to confirm the agency’s intentions. The EPA indicated that the regulation would prohibit conversion of vehicles into racecars and make the sale of certain emissions-related parts for use on converted vehicles illegal. Working with other affected organizations, including those representing legions of professional and hobbyist racers and fans, SEMA will continue to oppose the regulation through the administrative process and will seek congressional support and judicial intervention as necessary.
The EPA has indicated it expects to publish final regulations by July 2016.
http://semasan.com/page.asp?content=aa2016FED1&g=SEMAGA&utm_source=ET&utm_medium=email&utm_content=50756237&utm_campaign=LegAlert
OR CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION WHICH TAKES SECONDS!
About SEMA
SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association founded in 1963, represents the $36 billion specialty automotive industry of 6,633 member-companies. It is the authoritative source for research, data, trends and market growth information for the specialty auto parts industry. The industry provides appearance, performance, comfort, convenience and technology products for passenger and recreational vehicles. For more information, contact SEMA at 1575 S. Valley Vista Dr., Diamond Bar, CA 91765, tel: 909-610-2030, or visit www.sema.org.
So they’re saying even if the car does pass emissions after mods done to the car, it will be illegal.
Big brother at it again.
Yes, thats what it is like in Australia and it SUCKS!
This is all Bill Nye the Science Guy’s fault. He and Al Gore have the environmental market cornered. They make millions scaring the public with pictures of polar bears on tiny ice drifts.
Better write to your state legislation jerk offs and tell them to knock it off. With all the trouble in the world this is what they concentrate on. Some dork in some office must have caught an episode of street outlaws or something,assh#!es !
Here are a couple links, just add www in front of it ( I had posted the full link earlier, but it didn’t make it thru moderation)
house.gov/representatives/
.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_Senators
Does anybody have a link to and or a list of current congress men/women? It might prove usefull if you haven\’t ever written your congress person/representative before.. This article needs to be spread… Letters need to be written…. If this legislation passes, it will be twice as hard to repeal…
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_Senators
Second this
The simple fact that they buried the words in an unrelated medium and heavy duty regulation bundle shows deceptive intent. This group of people are demonstrating an underhanded, sneaky, over-reaching methodology to pursue their own personal agenda no matter what the folks paying their salary wants.
There is no other reason for this type of stuff. They either hoped it would slide through unnoticed – or are trolling for a political or financial payoff.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93579&page=1
This is a link from 02′, as it was an epa driven agenda that Clinton enacted in his last month in office.
Everyone better hang on ,as I am sure this will be but one of many things coming in the final year of the Obama administration.
Time to let your voice be heard!
Though I’ve written to my congressman and senators, I doubt they can do anything since it’s the EPA. Here’s the link to the proposal (https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-07-13/pdf/2015-15500.pdf) It looks real bad for engine swaps and crate engines too. My favorite sentence though has to be: “This allows EPA to set up an administrative process to approve competition exemptions.” so at least there will still be a way for us to beg for permission to engage in our hobby at some bureaucrat’s whim, assuming all our papers are in order.
Elect a Socialist, you get Socialism!
You won’t hear Washington going after the almost all needless airline travel, nor yachts, probably 100% needless, no as usual they’ll go after the little guy, Joe Lunchbox, he’s the problem, yeah sure.
And they can’t figure Trump? Big government sucks.
Elections have consequences. This why people should pay some attention to politics, to watch out for thier own interests. They vote for politicians that don’t agree with their values because their _______ (family, friends, stupid celebrities, union reps) tell them to, without doing any research on their own. Uninformed voters are what led us to this point.
This is more like fascism than socialism. Just wanted to point that out.
Not that any of these guys are paying attention anyway. Never mind the fact that the EPA was created by Nixon.
Totalitarianism
These are rules for medium and heavy duty trucks, and more specifically, for on-road vehicles and, I suppose, commercial vehicles like mine vehicles…. but a question, the rule was proposed on July 23, 2015, and comments closed on September 11, 2015…. why is this coming up now?
As for race cars – I don’t see how this applies… EPA doesn’t certify race tracks, and NHTSA doesn’t have anything to do with racing either…
Here’s the details of the “phase 2” Bill:
http://www3.epa.gov/otaq/climate/regs-heavy-duty.htm
Find your House and Senate members here:
https://www.congress.gov/members
SEMA has a tab for government affairs:
https://www.sema.org/
You will see that they do a lot of lobbying on regulations affecting racing.
Most mass mail campaigns begin with a brief, well written request for your Representative or Senator to support your position. SEMA could write a template for the letter and you simply sign it and email or mail it to your representative. When Reps or Senators receive hundreds or thousands of these it can make a difference in how much attention they pay to it when it comes up for a vote.
If you Google “Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles—Phase 2.” you will see that there is already some opposition to the claimed benefits of the bill.
You can make a difference.
The problem is that this isn’t a bill, it’s an EPA regulation. EPA does this on their own. Congress isn’t even involved. This is probably from the wish list of some greeny career bureaucrat who si entrenched there for the next thirty years.
Once again the Obama administration thinking there all knowing. So lets take the fun out of Friday cruise nights.thank God he’s almost done with his reign of terror over this country. And all of you should remember a vote for Clinton will keep this going. Thanks bangshift for bringing this to our attention.
The EPA can be beaten but it will take some work on the car community.
If you want to see overreach of these type of people look no further than CARB in California and the trucking industry.
I don’t want to sound too stupid here, but, are we talking newer/new vehicles? or cars & trucks period. In all honesty I am surprised Gov. entities have not crushed the current factory offerings of very high performance mustangs, Camaros, challengers, corvettes, and the multitudes of foreign performance cars. I am surprised the respective aftermarket tuner companies for these modern performance cars have not been crushed into oblivion and closed up shop. I am SHOCKED some politician somewhere has not poked his head up out of the ground and said HEY! people are buying and driving 700HP hellcats! A pox upon them! SEMA fights the good fight on our behalf. make your voice heard on this issue.
Why do government agencies always go after the little guy? They seem to be targeting occasional use race cars and high performance street/track cars. Occasionally used race cars can’t be that big of a contributor to pollution, since they aren’t used everyday, and for the vast majority, high performance street/track cars are not daily driven. If they are, my bet is that its a fairly short local commute, and not in the winter. Why not focus our efforts to refine cargo ships, semi-trucks, and passenger planes? I read an article a while back that talked about a few (8?) cargo ships that accounted for an utterly massive percentage of pollution because cargo ships use the cheapest, most unrefined fuel they can, which is also the dirtiest. I read this morning that if/when SpaceX gets their reusable rocket’s landings figured out they intend to have a launch every couple of weeks. What are the pollutants involved in that? To solve any problem, you have to go after the major contributing factors. In this case polluters that are large and continuous such as ships, not John Smith’s turbo fox body that drives 20 miles to the local strip once a week during the summer, makes four passes, and is then driven back home; only to sit in the garage all winter. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, this could almost be viewed as a small step toward outlawing privately owned cars and forcing an electric autonomous taxi service on us. But hey, what do I know?
Heck transportation in total only accounts for 7% or so of petrolium usage but it’s visable so the greens go after it the hardest.
Anybody care to share the bill number so I can check for myself ? Lot’s of rumor’s on everything now a days.
Just found it !
Could you please post it for the lazy type like myself?
House switchboard. (800) 202-2243
Not that congress can do anything about the runaway dictator that the EPA has become. So much for unelected beaurocrats subverting the constitution with edicts which have the force of law.
The following is from Senator Sessions(AL) on the immigration issue;
““The American people’s Congress has the power and every right to deny funding for unworthy activities,” he said. “It is a routine and constitutional application of congressional power.”
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/224837-appropriations-panel-defunding-immigration-order-impossible
I know that not to long ago, a specific program in NHSTA was defunded, motorcycle only “safety” checkpoint, so it is possible.
As someone who doesn’t compete in sanctioned events, this is something I’ve never really understood. Why start with an existing vehicle to end up with something for off-road competition? Considering the modifications required to just get into the 10’s, just start from zero and end up with something that you can really call your own.
Were I in the car building business, street or completion, this would sound like dollar signs for ages. Suddenly those factory racecars sans VIN are making a whole lot of sense, and dollars.
So you do not race, and most likely do not modify vehicles in any way. Just because you do not understand it does not mean we should not be allowed to do it.
I want to have a car I can both drive on the street, and race near every weekend. Its enjoyable, and where hot rodding came from. Nothing you say sounds like anything a car guy would ever even think.
Have you even noticed the price of those factory race cars? I paid less than that for more house, let alone their wait list to get one.
The more I consider your statement the more I hate you. Thank God I still have the freedom to express it.
Wowzers.
At no point did I say people shouldn’t be aloud to modify cars. From what I read, it implies that the vehicle will no longer be street driven, becoming a “racecar.” I could be wrong.
The high price, and exclusivity there in, of factory built race cars was my point.
The amount of air pollution created by race cars of any type is frickin MINISCULE in the grand scheme of things. Even if this went into law, it wouldn’t do jack SQUAT against global warming. If the EPA really wanted to FIX things, they’d do something about the massive amount of pollution from cars that are polluting by sitting in traffic.
First my guns, now my fun cars. Folks, this is why the constitutions was created. Not for protection of our government…but, for protection FROM our government. Why do you think POTUS keeps creating all of these Executive Orders?
Hope SEMA puts the hammer to this one.
https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-prevent-the-epa-from-banning-vehicle-modification
Never thought ide see the day the saying when race cars are outlawed only outlaws will have race cars would actually mean something
if this is all you DAMN politicians have to do then we don’t need you in your prospective jobs. you need to be solving problems that directly concern the country that you were elected to serve. national security, terrorism, drug cartels, espionage, treason, so on and so forth.
Sign the petition:
https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-prevent-the-epa-from-banning-vehicle-modification?recruiter=181573271&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-no_msg&fb_ref=Default
If you don’t pay attention to politics in this country, they will be knocking on everyones door pretty soon!!!
Thank god (if it’s still allowed) that the Obama regime is almost over with.
Fuck Obama, the EPA, and the dumbass Democratic minions that got this asshole reelected in the first place. TRUMP 2016. I’m also a member of the NRA, and I vote!
Blame NIXON for giving us the EPA, knowing full well the overreach they wold have since they operate separate the “checks & balances” system. I always knew that guy was a RINO & a crook.
I keep laughing the “Blame democrats” every time there is a environmental thing comes up when a republican came up with the first agenda for it.
Do people even see that politicians give a F**k about us. Be it either party, they do not care about you unless you can help them. Trump don’t care about you or your dog, he is wealthy from bankruptcy and will continue to pay his way of life. Same with Clinton and all other politicians. Like to read and become irritated, read the book “This Town” by Leibovich.
One thing i know is that if theres no tracks people will more likely race on public streets for one and for two… if they really want clean air we should be making electric cars high performance and cheaper and also cheaper lipo battery technology or hydro oxy batteries better… and printable solar cells because electric is capable of unheard of rpms like 100,000rpm where a piston engine only makes around 10,000 rpm at best
3 years ago, save but one random storm, the drought stricken midwest US corn crop was on the brink of near total failure. Last summer, interior California farmers were pumping 20,000 year old ground water to irrigate their crops. Once that was gone, Ag experts tell me farmers had no plan B to water crops. Further, groundwater overdraft subsidence was altering the ground so severely that water distributions systems were loosing ground on gravity. These actual climate phenomenon have the fingerprint of global warming predictions and they are happening now. And this is just the appetizer for what is predicted for climate. So … who needs food when we can be advocating for big machines that go vrooom?