when there is no regulation on the amount of driving, or extent of driving that one can do, which obviously affects emissions just as much as the efficiency of the emission controls themselves.

Driving more, and driving more agressively is just as bad for the environment - but there's no legislation limiting how much we can drive, and how much of that time we spend at wide open (within the speed limits obviously). Does Verdegrrrrrrrrrrl have a throttle stop in place to keep her from creating excessive emissions?

It's too bad all of the negative energy of the tree huggers is wasted on whining and pissing people off instead of working to find an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels. It's easy to play the quarterback from the armchair when you're overcome with ignorance and the inability to think in a rational manner.

I used to drive 100 miles round trip daily for the past, I don't know, ten years or so? A lot of that was stop and go. The government never said "Move closer to work!" or "take the bus!". I moved work closer to home, so my 2 mile commute every day means I've reduced my emissions output considerably.

In California, if you fit into a certain socioeconomic class, you can seek emissiosn exemption for your automobile if you make less than $17,500/year (last I remember).

Something tells me that the people who are making $17,500 a year or less and living in this area aren't driving well maintained, environmentally friendly automobiles.

The vast majority of drivers will never think about removing emissions controls, and there is a very small minority of enthusiasts who still keep catalysts on their cars, which still meet all EPA regulations, and still keep the vehicle's emissions output within the government's set tolerances for that vehicle.

I've driven cars with no cats, and I hated it - the fumes were disgusting idling away with a big lopey cam at stoplights, etc. And a 4-5 horsepower loss to cats is worth it when you're making 500+...

Where I live, most people buy a new car before they are required to have a smog check.

In conclusion, if the precats were really a huge deal, testing stations would be doing a full cold catalyst test, by bringing the engine to operating temperature, shutting it down for a half hour (this will usually keep the ECU pretty close to closed-loop), and then monitoring lambda feedback to see how long it takes to light off the precats. Using the 4/5 gas analyzer before and after lightoff will tell them just how well the catalyst is working.

I would bet that these cars run so clean at no load idle that the precats don't even light off until there's load on the vehicle.

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2000 w/ some stuff

StilAuto Fives, 19x8 - 235/35/19 (they won't clear stock calipers with new pads)