The future of classics

[lloyd3]

Excellent point Redgum. This assumes, of course, that we still have the freedom to do so.

If some virulent environmentalist comes to power and declares a certain class of vehicles to be "gross emitters" and bans their use on public highways then.....it's all over.  Our cars would have zero resale value and would actually become a liability.

If this sounds far-fetched, consider this: every new car exposition I've gone to in Denver for the last 3 years has this Air-Care Colorado twit extolling the virtue of scrapping your older cars. He or she claims that 80s and older stuff pollutes 10 times what a newer car does.  All it will take is some self-righteous politician to seize onto that theme and we're in trouble.

[randy73]

My answer to the original question is that it won't effect classic cars.

Since the introduction of automobiles there is almost no practical reason for a person to own or use a horse (maybe a few exceptions but not many). Yet horses, horse racing and other horse related activities have continued and even grown over the last 100 years simply because they where such an important part of human development, and some people just like them.

I suspect when our internal combustion engine finally reaches a point where it is no longer practical we will continue to see enthusiasts and interest groups keep the hobby going for decades or even centuries for exactly the same reason we have horse races today 

Believe this too!! 

Everybody forgets how impractical cars were when they first came out, battery technology is just really taking off and everyone is talking range, but if there was as many charging stations as gas stations, range would be a mute point.

[alfaitalia]

Excellent point Redgum. This assumes, of course, that we still have the freedom to do so.

If some virulent environmentalist comes to power and declares a certain class of vehicles to be "gross emitters" and bans their use on public highways then.....it's all over.  Our cars would have zero resale value and would actually become a liability.

If this sounds far-fetched, consider this: every new car exposition I've gone to in Denver for the last 3 years has this Air-Care Colorado twit extolling the virtue of scrapping your older cars. He or she claims that 80s and older stuff pollutes 10 times what a newer car does.  All it will take is some self-righteous politician to seize onto that theme and we're in trouble.

Over here they claim the worst polluting ten percent of cars create fifty percent of the car produced air pollution. Could be true I guess.

[lloyd3]

Alfaitalia makes my point for me. Whether this is propaganda or not, it is already a theme being repeated as fact.  At the auto shows here, only my kid gets approached by the Air-Care folks (they've already given up on us old codgers).

[RCCDrew]

My answer to the original question is that it won't effect classic cars.

Since the introduction of automobiles there is almost no practical reason for a person to own or use a horse (maybe a few exceptions but not many). Yet horses, horse racing and other horse related activities have continued and even grown over the last 100 years simply because they where such an important part of human development, and some people just like them.

I suspect when our internal combustion engine finally reaches a point where it is no longer practical we will continue to see enthusiasts and interest groups keep the hobby going for decades or even centuries for exactly the same reason we have horse races today 

Believe this too!! 

Everybody forgets how impractical cars were when they first came out, battery technology is just really taking off and everyone is talking range, but if there was as many charging stations as gas stations, range would be a mute point.

And if you could fully charge your electric car in 4 minutes.

[Mike DC]

      
   
Electric cars are not the only technology that would benefit from better electric battery storage tech.  Take a look at your phone.  Or your laptop.  Or you cordless drill.  Or a nuclear submarine.  

There have been ongoing development efforts on batteries for 100 years.  It just hasn't returned the results we want.  


Looking at the big picture, pretty much any good method of storing power ends up being a combustible/flammable fluid.  I suspect that by the time batteries are approaching petroleum-level performance they will also have similar drawbacks.  (Perhaps not the problems with paying arabs for oil, but at least the safety & storage issues.  Maybe some real environmental damage too.)

[alfaitalia]

Cars like the Tesla Model X are pushing the game along fast...well over 300 miles range OR 0-60 in under 3 second. A massive improvement over just a few years ago. Much too expensive though imo....does not stop them selling though...I see a Tesla of some sort most days on my commute. I'm not a fan of electric cars and was the first to say "electric cars?...never happen in my life time!".......all over the UK now with over 100,000 electric cars (mostly small cars like the Nissan Leaf because of cost) sold in last twelve months....so I may have been wrong!

[tan top]

How far away from "Total Recall" are we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWgrvNHjKkY

haha  , yeah been saying for years  , the world is getting like demolition man  ,  now electric cars will be the norm  ,   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9v4BdDwyn4

[krops cars]

A another way to start making gas prices go up. The US government and other millionaires makes it's share on gasoline. I feel that is why no one has came up with a great alternative.

[Mike DC]

         
Gasoline in the USA is cheap for what it is.  We only call it expensive because we're addicted to using stupid amounts of it. 

The price is simple market-driven factors.  There are too many different oil producers around the world for any one govt or company to artificially fix prices in the long term sense.  They can do it for a few months but the prices will just rebound the other direction eventually.