Connecticut: Registration, Inspection & Emissions

[RENEW1]

I sent email to a woman legislator in Ct that SEMA claims supports auto hobbiests. Been two weeks, no answer. Why are we not hearing from composite car manufacturers on this Ct problem? When I look at what is going on in this state it looks like we are going to follow the "Kyoto" agreement that was shot down by the Fed Government. The guy who sponsored this bill claims he did it "for the kids". Frankly I'm tired of hearing that song for everything that comes up these days! I think we are shoveling
sh--against a the tide and it will just get worse. If I don't build a Cobra I'll go ahead with my other plan to build a Fairlane Thunderbolt clone. I know I can register that one and not have to have emissions checked!!!

[Don]

Agree.........

An excerpt from a letter sent Dec 13 to Matthew Fritz, DEP Chief of Staff:

Assuming another 25 registered in the remaining months of 2005 and all of 2006, there would be approx 214 Composites of all types in CT, which does not include motorcycles. With the drving season being about 7 or 8 months and limited annual mileage of each Composite in the low thousands ( 1,000 to 2,500 ) , the total annual mileage for Composites is insignificant to all the miles driven by CT residents. Based upon the registrations of Composites, what would prompt the DEP to continue to enforce Composite emissions and periodically lower the standards ? Agreed that everything helps, but the impact that Composites have on CT emissions more than likely cannot be measured, now or in the future.

Thanks in advance for your consideration and I look forward to your reply

The other topic covered was the delay in publishing the 2007 Emission standards, after numerous inquries

Should anyone else wish to contact the DEP:

Matthew Fritz, Chief of Staff
Department of Environmental Protection
79 Elm St
Hartford CT 06166-5127

I asked for a reply by e-mail, will post when received.

[Don]

On the last day of 2006, it would have been nice if the DEP had released the 2007 Composite Emissions Standards. But, to the best of my knowledge, the standards did not get released. Nor has the DEP Chief of Staff responded, did not even acknowledge being contacted

I had forwarded the file to the State Representative for my District on Dec 26th asking for his assistance:

December 26, 2006

State Representative Ted Graziani
14 Punkin Drive
Ellington CT 06029

Rep Ted Graziani

I have enclosed a copy of the file that was sent to the DEP Chief of Staff, Matthew Fritz, on December 15th. The topic is emissions standards for 2007 Composites, aka replicas and kit cars.

After numerous follow-ups since the 2nd quarter of 2006 , on November 11, December 8 , December 10 and the lettter to Mr Fritz on December 15th, I have not received any response. Also, the DMV co-ordinator for emissions has not received a reply to his inquiry.

In addition to requesting the 2007 emission standards for Composites I also asked for an explanation of the DEP policy on emission testing for Composites. With a total of approx 214 Composites registered in Connecticut, each driven approx 1,000 to 2,500 miles annually, the impact on emissions probably could not be measured and/or is insignificant to the total emissions in the entire state.

I would appreciate your assistance to resolve the issue of obtaining information and clarification from the DEP regarding emission standards for Composites.

Regards

[Cashburn]

Don,
Thanks a ton for keeping this going... I have been working some other angles. Also will be getting serious about SEMA rep. and we may just take one of our cars through the "new" process to see what is going on.

We took a car through inspection on Thursday and managed to get it registered in a nail biter on Thursday evening... paperwork headaches vs. usual.

Though we continue to explore other options.

Amazed that companies like ERA, Total Performance, etc. seem oblivious to this.

[SJK2]

So lets get CT. rolling, what do we do????

[RENEW1]

I have discussed the emissions problems again with Peter at ERA. All I know for sure is that there is some meeting scheduled with DMV and DEP in the near future. I'm not sure Peter knows exactly how to prepare for this. I gave him my problems with the whole thing and the composite numbers Don had found. I think that we as Ct customers are a small portion of their business and that may have an effect on how much help we get. Being an old "Hot Rodder" I came across an old article when emissions standards were established in Ca. and a 390 powered Mustang was tested. Getting HC to meet Ca standards was easy (retarded timing to 6 BTDC) reduced HC to 50ppm. The hard part was CO as the car had a 750Holly. Best reading was 2.36% and car ran very poorly. The way I see it, only direct port fuel injection would get below the 1.3% of the new requirements. A company in Ca is trying to sell a system for all non emission controlled cars that does something with PCV valve lines, a control box and three stage Cats. If anyone is interested, The company is Neutronics Enterprises Inc. I have a feeling this company and maybe others out there are pushing these ideas on DEP's in several states. Buy the way maybe a few letters to Bob Ward, our newly proposed head of DMV, might help

[Don]

While I have not made any attempts, one starting point would be to locate a State Senator or Representative that might have a vested interest in our dilemma, such as active participation in the sport/hobby. Either personally or with friends and family members. Need the emotional attachment.

From my previous contact with the DMV, they have nothing to do with establishing the emissions standards. Their connection is to just enforce the PASS or FAIL standard as part of the registration process. As evident by the DMV emissions co-ordinator not being able to obtain the 2007 Composite standard from the DEP.

Jay, should you bring to a garage one of your Cobras for an emissions test, possible to find out the standard now, 2007, being used vs the 2006 standard ?

[RENEW1]

Sent off a letter today to my House Rep Brian Hurlburt. He was newly elected this year so I'll be curious to see if he answers me. Also talked to a retired DEP employee today and he said the whole thing of registering Composites as the model year they are registered was a mistake when they first set up emissions requirements but nobody wanted to correct it. If you look at all the legislation exempting composites, it looks like Composites are exempt based on the model year the Composite represents. That's the way it should be but I'm not sure we have strong enough influence to change it.

[Don]

RENEW1

Do you have a reference where the info can be viewed ?

If you look at all the legislation exempting composites, it looks like Composites are exempt based on the model year the Composite represents.

I would then follow-up with another letter to the State Representative I had initially contacted. So far, no reply, I mailed to his home address and we both live in the same town, included my phone number.

[Cashburn]

Another angle you may want to mention in your letters/emails etc. A customer of ours that is a cop mentioned a very good point to me. He said they need to list them as the year they replicate for law enforcement's benefit. The idea being if the car were ever stolen or they needed to identify it or track it for any purpose it would make the process much easier to refer to it as a 1965 vs. a 2006, 2007, etc... he would not know what to actually look for.

[Don]

Jay, agree. I will make the point in my next letter, assuming the current issue is not resolved ( smile ).

" Officer. my Composite may look like either a Cobra, or GT40, or T-Bucket, or Hot Rod, or Lotus 7, or Lamborghini, or 40 Ford, or Porsche. or 57 T-Bird or Willys. or................"

Oh, I see that Backdraft is on the cover of Kit Car Builder, have not yet read the article,

[Cashburn]

Originally Posted by Don

Oh, I see that Backdraft is on the cover of Kit Car Builder, have not yet read the article,

I have to go pick that one up, look under the hood of that bad boy

[RENEW1]

Hi Don,

Finding info on changes in compodite requirements is difficult and time consuming. I have used the SEMA site to get info on where things are happening and then spend hours searching legislative records for the state involved. SEMA site isn't always up to date. For instance, Oregon has passed a new composite requirement already but won't be on their DMV site until July. Most states that pass motor vehicle laws don't go into effect for 6 months to a year. I have attached (I hope),a word document made from SEMA info that documents what has changed in Cal of other states!! I havent learned how to link any of the legislative sites to this form yet.

[RENEW1]

Found more interesting stuff today. Got into email system where apparently various state emissions officials talk to each other. The main page has email from Ct official to a Georga official. If you do a Cntrl +mouse click on some of the headers you get even more. The Ct official I think got one of the year dates wrong ,should be 2006 not 2007,and the Composite numbers are different from what we have.Wait till you see the failure rate for Composites
Also found out that 1980 emissions specs in Ct are much higher than what I was told by DEP a few days ago. The specs I got are actually 1981 specs.
Interesting!!

[Cashburn]

RENEW1,
The VA guys should check out that commentary too... wow.

[Don]

RENEW1:

If you look at all the legislation exempting composites, it looks like Composites are exempt based on the model year the Composite represents.


.........ooooops, my mistake, I mis-read the posting and thought it referred to CT specific legislation.

My Cobra was tested on Sept 30, 2000. At that time the emission standards, Maximum Limits, were:

HC: 484 PPM
CO: 5.09 %
NO: 3182 PPM

The above from the previous test system at the official Emissions test sites within the state, not at a garage.

[Don]

From the Emissions e-mail:

The following statistics are for the time period from the start of our program in October 2003 through Dec.26, 2007. During that time we tested 2.7
million vehicles of which 139,029 received a TSI test. Of the TSI tests
conducted 437 were Kit car tests with 287 initial tests and 150 retests
of one or more times.


Check my previous posting on the number of Composites registrered in CT. The 287 initial tests seems to be the correct number, + or -

Can I interpret the comment that waivers are being granted based upon the expense to meet the emissions standard, even though the waiver has to be renewed every two years ?

Also, appears there now is a name and phone number at the DEP Emissions office to obtain the 2007 Composite standards, has anyone called ? No reply from the DEP Chief of Staff or the State Representative to my inquiries.

[RENEW1]

I thought about calling the Ct official but backed off. For one I'm very emotional about this thing and had a hard time not screeming at the lower level official I talked to at DEP a few days ago. Second I don't want to screw things up for people like ERA or others who might be going to that meeting I was told about. I fought this emissions program before it even started and still think it is a waste of money and everybodys time. Newer cars will take care of the emissions problem with time.

[Wheels427]

Just thought I'd bring my specs I needed to pass,HC 800 on both cruise & idle,CO 4.00 on both tests.doesn't mention NO on my test paper,weird my HC needed was higher but my CO was lower than the test mentioned before.I know a guy that just went through getting his FFR registured and they charged him $40.00 like a new car for emissions and didn't mention anything to him about retests or anything,so he's in limbo about whats coming up.My car has to be tested every 2 years like any other ,I guess.

[Cashburn]

Wheels,
Did your friend with the FFR get registered as a 2006 or 2007? And did he fail?

Thanks