https://www.sema.org/epa-news

long story short the EPA is chasing tuners now.

 

the website is basically a rant that does not cite anything from the EPA in terms of enforcement actions or policies that they have actually undertaken. What exactly are they doing? Are the Feds going to track weekends and seizing people's cars? It's poorly written and doesn't convince me to do anything.

 

I think SEMA has done good over the years but some times they have these "HAIR ON FIRE" deals that get everyone stirred up. Every few years something comes up like this, "THEY WON'T LET YOU MODIFY YOUR CAR AT ALL!" " RACE TRACKS WILL BE BANNED!" etc.

Dale

 

In Vancouver we have one officer that has become a zealot for quashing modified cars (or he is the face of other zealots.) As a result the tuner industry is getting crushed.

There was one big meet several years ago with over 1000 cars. If each car had $30,000 of modifications, that represents a $30 million industry.

During covid we have seen an uptick in people spending time on their cars. So there is a definite social well being element to the tuner scene.

Going for cruises has been an outlet for social activity while each driver is keeping their distance in their own bubble.

 

It appears the enforcement may be gaining momentum.. I'll share this video of a reputable shop primarily in the Mustang world. He was visited by the EPA. He has links in the description, PDFs of the EPA "alerts". although they are looking for defeat devices, **** is getting real in the tuning world. If this becomes aggressively enforced it could be devastating for our industry/hobby. The RPM Act is a direct fight against what the EPA is saying and doing. I don't believe they'll go to the track and shut people down and take their cars. They'll go after the manufacturer and suppliers, in other words we'll be racing stock cars...fun for only about the first few laps. Now the sky isn't falling now but perhaps something we should pay attention too.
video -

 

If you read this document, the actual enforcement effort is being put towards businesses that make money on selling diesel particulate filter deletes. It isn't surprising as coal rolling is highly visible to the public and arguably among the worst pollution offenders. But there really isn't a leg to stand on right now legally... basically any tune increases emissions. Whether we should clamp down on it is another manner, but the EPA is just fulfilling their legal mandate. These enforcement actions were done under the previous administration and the current administration is not likely to alter course; if anything they will step up the enforcement.

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...s-enfalert.pdf

If you read the actual RPM act, it's actually very short and won't do much. https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/h...16hr5434ih.pdf

"Section 203(a) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 3 7522(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following: ‘‘No action with respect to any device or element of design referred to in paragraph (3) shall be treated as a prohibited act under that paragraph if the action is for the purpose of modifying a motor vehicle into a vehicle that is not legal for operation on a street or highway and is to be used solely for competition.’’

Any of the enforcement people will have very little trouble showing that these parts are used for cars that are not 100% trailered dedicated race cars. It's going to take some big dollar lawyers to basically stop EPA enforcement ala the current immigration situation, or a much more aggressive change to the clean air act (which isn't happening, let's face it). SEMA is trying to maintain the polite fiction that they are selling stuff to actual race cars, when we all know the vast majority of the revenue is coming from street cars that do 1-2 weekends of competitive events per year.

So enjoy engine modding while you can. The big targets are the diesels now. They may hit the big Gasoline engine reflash companies next such as HP Tuners and Cobb. Realistically if those companies shut down, there is little immediate impact beyond a big spike in prices for reflash tools on newer cars. Standalone ECUs seem more likely to be able to survive as those are clearly racing parts on newer cars; when you put a standalone into a modern car it makes a lot of the vehicle functions not work.

 

Yes, RPM Act is to support strictly for competition/race vehicles. We all know about the grey area as far as offroad use only. Thats a losing battle the way things are looking..Diesel is under the microscope now but perhaps the RPM Act can slow the migration into our side of the market. RPM Act seems to be better than nothing at this point, we'll see...

 

At the end of the day it just seems this is a far over reach by the EPA. It's hard for me to believe that as little as we drive our cars.. (most enthusiasts) that this is somehow going to have any significant impact on reducing air pollution. We might account for a small fraction of air pollution, seriously we have to be that tiny little slice at the end of the pie chart of air polluters...idk maybe I'm wrong

 

I'll give you an example. On Subarus with the direct injected FA20DIT engine, you can go in with a Cobb tune and turn off the stratified combustion during cold start. That basically means the catalyst warms up much much slower and the amount of emission on cold start increases drastically on a percentage basis.

 

Yea I get it.. i owned an Evo X with bolt ons and a Cobb Accessport. I'm somewhat familiar with the "ons/offs" they can do. But what the RPM Act is trying to protect is if said person actually uses this vehicle for competition only, they are exempt from that. EPA is saying you can't even do that, in other words, you cannot modify it at all even for Motorsports only.

On the flip side if that person gets caught on the street, then they are absolutely responsible for the consequences.

It'd be nice if the EPA did a study on enthusiast vehicles to show how much or less we're impacting the environment. I get it, there's plenty of ppl running around on the street with test pipes but their state allows it. I live in California so it isn't going to get any worse for us except for the Motorsports folks who literally trailer their vehicles. Now TX and FL will be in for a rude awakening

 

I think the comparison to immigration enforcement is good because the laws haven't changed here, the enforcement priorities have. They were issued under the Trump administration.

I like the RPM Act because it adds boundaries to the the Clean Air Act. There is nothing about exceptions for competition usage in the Clean Air Act; the EPA is only choosing to ignore competition usage. That can change.

But I don't see it stopping the EPA from targeting your local Joe's Speed Shop or whatever. Hopefully priorities change.

 

I don't get what the issue is. Most of the people worried are the ones that drive modded cars on the street. Far fewer people take a street car and turn it into a dedicated track car.

Deleting a cat or modifying emissions is already illegal in most places. Nothing much new other than a higher level of enforcement.

Rolling coal is idiotic in the first place. It shouldn't be a surprise there are efforts to crack down on brodozers which then applies to mods on non brodozers.

 

And people wonder why there are crack downs.



So many videos with this. With crowds cheering.... What is so cool about it? This is what ruins things for others.

 

And they wonder why they get sued by the EPA for selling emission deletes?

And don't forget, SEMA promotes the brodozers heavily. What did they expect would happen.

 

Yea those guys are clowns..

 

My concern is if they continue to go after the tuners.. im not sure where guys like Motec, Haltec, AEM etc fall.

 

Hopefully those guys fall under a different "category"

 

Agree. Will not be good for them. I don't know their business models and split between legit Motorsports and tuners, but def not something that helps growth. Some of the higher end companies maybe ok if they sway more heavily toward true Motorsports.

 

I wish they'd just focus on enforcement of the current laws. Plenty of people in my neck of the woods (and not just modders) putting around without cats. We don't have strict emissions testing here really...but to me missing converters should just be an automatic fail that's visible to the police so they can ticket you if/when someone just decides to ignore renewing their registration.

There should be a happy gray area somewhere between how strict CA is, and just letting people go nuts on the street.

 

They are enforcing the current laws, they are just nowhere close to being that narrow. Virtually anything can be construed to impact emissions control devices, and let's face it, on cars with increasingly integrated electronic systems, there's some truth to that.

Personally, I think something as low-impact as street-modding or removing cats should be handled at a municipal level.

What we consider reasonable is very different from what someone who views cars as polluting appliances considers reasonable. Putting an intercooler on a car might as well be "going nuts" for most people. I can talk to my neighbors or make my case at the town hall, but there's no dialogue with a state or federal agency.

 

They aren't enforcing the current laws at the municipal level and that's the problem. I can throw a rock here and hit a car that's running straight pipes.

There's certainly a difference between something impacting emissions, and just throwing out even the most basic attempt at controlling emissions on your vehicle. If you don't want crackdowns on minor things like intercoolers, then its logical that tighter enforcement needs to happen on the obvious, higher impact issues (ie rolling coal, running no emissions equipment at all on the street, etc)

And again, its not just street modders running catless out there. Its more common than you might think because replacing factory cats is expensive so tons of people just end up saying **** it.

 

It's a lot easier for the EPA or Carb to shut down vendors selling ECU tuning or emission delete parts, and there's a lot less chance of a backlash. Again coming back to Subaru as I'm familiar with the community: you can get an EGR valve and tumble generator valve delete kit from multiple vendors. That's a part that blatantly is meant for emissions. You could even see an air pump delete kit for an FD (pulley change, ACV blockoff) as affecting emissions and thus illegal, but the Feds only have so many resources to pursue small companies making this stuff.

 

Where do you live? Sounds like my kind of people.

I have no idea what you're community looks like, and I know local government can suck.

But if you want more enforcement, you're going to get it, and it's not going to make any of the distinctions you made. You're asking for for discretion from people who don't have a good basis for it.

I'd be surprised if any of my coworkers could tell me what an intercooler or a catalytic converter is. It's like asking someone to describe components in a microwave. If I told you I was modifying my microwave, you'd probably think, "he probably shouldn't be doing that." Thats how most people think with cars. Now add an environmental or health impetus to that and forget it. Putting an intercooler on your car is judged as trying to subvert the law and give kids asthma, no different than chopping off an exhaust component.

Edit: I'm not trying to start up an argument, spinningdorito, just share some thoughts.

 

People are steeling cats for the metals. It is quite a problem.

 

Is a cat delete worth it.
Posted today by a major YouTuber. Great timing if they rate really worries about a crack down on mods.