TR7

[DrFfybes]

But what you always have to pass is a "smog test". It's a nice little earner for everyone involved.

I suspect I'd struggle with that some mornings.

Paul

[9873210]

The TR6 Lucas mechanical injection system never made the US pollution regs. US cars had twin Strombergs and 30% lower power. Nowadays the system is well supported and pretty bomb-proof.

Although there are US federal regulations about emissions and pollution, specifically the Clean Air Act enforced by the EPA, the rules for which cars can be sold are at the state level.

What happens is that the rules are driven by the state with the strictest requirements which, for as long as I can recall, has been California.

Other states have more lenient rules. But as a practical matter car manufacturers are not going to make 50 variants of the same car and so they are all made to California standards and, ipso facto, they meet the requirements of all states.

There is no equivalent of a MOT test in the US. The various levels of government in the US do not care if your brakes, steering or suspension are faulty. But what you always have to pass is a "smog test". It's a nice little earner for everyone involved.

You need to brush up on US law.

Federal law allows for exactly two sets of emission standards. The "federal rules" and the "California rules". States can adopt one or the other, but not other variants.

Many states do in fact have periodic safety inspections similar to the MOT. Many states and parts of states (including parts of California) do not have "smog tests".

In any case in most cars with OBDII the smog test is a simple readout from the on board computer and is quite cheap in most places. OBDII was mandatory in 1996 and is typically adopted by state programs for model years shortly after that, so the tail pipe smog test is rapidly becoming relegated to "classic" cars, many of which are exempt anyway. (New York state, for example, uses OBDII for model year 1996 onwards, and exempts personal vehicles older than 25 years old, so few tailpipe tests for personal vehicles are required in NY.)

[Lootman]

But what you always have to pass is a "smog test". It's a nice little earner for everyone involved.

I suspect I'd struggle with that some mornings.

For newer vehicles it is a doddle. Just place a sensor in the exhaust pipe and the computer does it all.

But older vehicles have to go on the rolling road for the full monty. But you can charge more for that.

I recall taking an old Mustang into a smog station in LA, which failed. The guy told me he could de-tune the engine to get it through the test, and then re-tune it so it went properly. Seemed fair to me, although it makes a mockery of the test.

Many states do in fact have periodic safety inspections similar to the MOT. Many states and parts of states (including parts of California) do not have "smog tests".

Could be, like I said things vary by State, and possibly even by County. I was just describing the places there where I have personal experience of this.

[quelquod]

By way of irrelevant eye candy, this was our TR6

Lovely looking car. IIRC early models had a lot of problems with the Lucas fuel injection. Motorsport had one for a long-term test and it spent quite a lot of time out of action due to injection problems and other issues. A friend of mine had one and was kind enough to leave it with me to look after, (ie start it regularly to keep it working). A very fond memory.

RC

Mine was a 1969 model and the fuel injection seldom missed a beat. It really made quite a racket under hard acceleration - you could hear the shuttle cracking back and forwards above the exhaust. The injection system gave both great low end acceleration and not bad economy as long as you looked after the metering. I used to “tune” mine by padding the fuel cam with feeler gauges and using a Colourtune plug to get the right flame colour then glue shims in place. The only time it gave trouble was when the vacuum inlet broke off miles from home producing clouds of black smoke from the exhaust. I bought some Araldite and glued it and it was still fine when I sold the car. If only today’s were as readily repaired!

[9873210]

But what you always have to pass is a "smog test". It's a nice little earner for everyone involved.

I suspect I'd struggle with that some mornings.

For newer vehicles it is a doddle. Just place a sensor in the exhaust pipe and the computer does it all.

For newer vehicles it's even more of a doddle. Plug in the OBDII reader under the dash and let the computers do the rest. The only thing a tail pipe sensor is used for on a modern, or even not so modern (e.g. 2001 model year), car is searching for fuel leaks (which are rarely in the tail pipe)

At a guess DrFfybes is an old enough model year that a tailpipe sensor would still be require. If it's any consolation the tailpipe sensor is usually smaller than an OBDII scanner.

[88V8]

And here is a TR8 racing at Spa.
Worth watching for the soundtrack, if that makes sense.
The screen-in-screen shows the position on the circuit, revs, speed and G force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ix_2N7elxk

V8

[airbus330]

When I was 18 my then boss had a company TR7. I was often allowed to use it and loved it for its modern design. At the time my company car was a brown Austin Allegro with a square steering wheel, so the only way was up! About 9 years later my best friend bought an aging TR7 and it was all the horrors previously mentioned, but I was still happy to appear in the pub carpark next to the car of that era, Fords XR3i.