Auto Emissions

[Cuda340]

The Senate voted Thursday to increase fuel ecomy standards from 27.5 to 35 mpg by 2020 and require 50% of vehicles to run on an 85% ethanol fuel mixture by 2015. A more stringent bill was defeated that would have required an additional 4% improvement in fuel economy from 2020 to 2030. This would have increased the fleet-wide average to 52 mpg!

I think that the writing is on the wall. It looks like we will be seeing a repeat of the 1970s when muscle cars faded away.

The bottom line- get your Challenger ASAP and keep it forever!

[BANANA2387]

amen to that!

[DartSportDude]

I posted several months ago how the same jerks that brought us the 70s "energy crisis" and "environmental crisis" are still at work, and would eventually kill this performance car revival, too. Sadly, the American public deserves the government it's getting. We're asleep at the wheel!

[Challenger09]

Maybe I am an optimist. I think the saving grace is the E85. If the farmers are able to produce enough corn, or we are able to make alcohol more efficiently from it, I think that the economy standards will stay the same, or maybe lighten. The logic, E85 will be grown by the local farmers, and it produces less emissions than regular petrol. I could be wrong, but I think we are in a better position this time around than we were 35 years ago.

[firstmethod]

Originally Posted by Challenger09

Maybe I am an optimist. I think the saving grace is the E85. If the farmers are able to produce enough corn, or we are able to make alcohol more efficiently from it, I think that the economy standards will stay the same, or maybe lighten. The logic, E85 will be grown by the local farmers, and it produces less emissions than regular petrol. I could be wrong, but I think we are in a better position this time around than we were 35 years ago.

The deathknell for the original muscle car era involved at least three critical factors - a perfect storm that shut the era down almost over night.

1. Arab oil embargo.
2. Massive emission crackdown.
3. Massive insurance crackdown.

Take one away and the era doesn't just stop it more likely peters out. There are too many variables at work to just point at a piece of legislation and say "that's it! game over". What if their next gen MDS system is even on their performance engines (like the 392) and shuts down from 8 cyl to 4 cyl to even 2 cyl at cruise, what kind of milage could we expect?

BTW if you run the numbers it equates to a .5 mpg improvement per year between now and 2020. Of course this is corporate average not vehicle specific. And a lot can happen in 13 years to improve fuel economy without sacrificing power.

As far as high performance ethanol engines go... http://www.drivingethanol.org/motors...va_energy.aspx If this is where the future of performance engines is going bring it ON! 100+ extra HP! I bet an ethanol Hemi will sound just like a gas Hemi to boot. That doesn't sound like a deathblow to me.

[bobio1080]

I don't think this is going to hurt the muscle car rebirth since after all we have better technology now and our emisions are already a lot better then they were 30 years ago. I think it will help us since it might drive fuel prices down in the future due t othe fact that we would be growing the corn, making the ethanol, and storring, shipping, and selling it in the states and maybe even other countries so the US will have a bigger profit and therefore the fuel prices won't have to be as high since were doing everything.

[DartSportDude]

Ethanol Hemi?! I'll pass, thank you.

[RRHemi]

I don't care much what it runs on. Problem with ethanol is there isn't enough corn to make a serious dent in our oil usage.

[MentallyChallenged]

I don't think our government is doing enough to make this country less dependent on oil. It should be one of our strategic goals. That and figuring out how to get some heavy industry back in the USA.

If I can get a car that goes 0-60 in 4 seconds I don't car if it runs on gas, electricity, or soylent green.

I want Ethel to be sold again. As stupid kids we used to yell out the window at guys pumping gas and say "Hey, you pumping Ethel?". I know...juvenile...

[Cuda340]

There may be hope.

In an effort to increase its fleet mileage numbers, Chrysler has announced that a new family of V-6 engines will have the ability to drop to 3 cylinders when less power is needed, raising the fuel economy by 6-8%.

Also, Chrysler has plans to place its two mode hybrid powertrain in more vehicles and alter the 5.7 Hemi and 4.7 V-8 engines for better gas mileage.

Maybe the 6.1 and 6.4 Hemis will survive as "niche market" muscle cars. The only down side is that we will be paying a hefty gas guzzler tax.