VOTE TODAY! IT'S PAYBACK TIME FOR THE"CASH FOR CLUNKERS" FIASCO!

We saw this today at Car Craft.com, and we agree completely!

If you're not at the opening of the SEMA Show today, please remember to get out and VOTE!

Sure, Car Crafters tend not to be into politics. But the politicians elected today will be deciding our automotive future. They'll decide whether "cap and trade" and big hikes in Corporate Average Fuel Economy will doom our beloved V8s! They'll decide emissions laws, energy policy, highway funding and even laws that will make it harder to keep our race tracks open. Voting today is particularly important in the battleground states of California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana, New Hampshire and North Carolina.

But even if you don't live in a battleground state, your vote to protect our Automotive liberty and freedom to Car Craft is vital.

But who should you vote for? Vote Automotive!

Vote for the candidates who are most likely to oppose EPA/DOT/CARB power grabs. Vote for candidates who recognize personal liberty. Vote for candidates who opposed schemes like "Cash for Clunkers" -- an expensive mess destroyed hundreds of thousands of V8s that Car Crafters, restorers, and gearheads could have used (even after SEMA-SAN stopped the car haters from crushing pre-1984 classics).

The "Cash for Clunkers" vote is a good bellweather for whether or not a politician "gets" Automotive freedom or not. In case you forgot how your local politician voted, here's the list: THE 298 ENEMIES OF AUTOMOTIVE FREE MARKETS IN THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WHO VOTED FOR THE "CA$H FOR CLUNKER$" BAILOUT BILL ON JUNE 9, 2009: Abercrombie, Ackerman, Adler (NJ), Altmire, Andrews, Arcuri, Austria, Baca, Bachus, Baldwin, Barrow, Barton (TX), Bean, Becerra, Berkley, Berman, Berry, Bilbray, Bishop (GA), Bishop (NY), Blumenauer, Blunt, Boccieri, Boren, Boswell, Boucher, Brady (PA), Bright, Brown (Corrine), Brown-Waite(Ginny), Burton (IN), Butterfield, Buyer, Calvert, Camp, Campbell, Cao, Capito, Capps, Capuano, Cardoza, Carnahan, Carney, Carson (IN), Cassidy, Castle, Castor (FL), Chandler, Childers, Clarke, Clay, Cleaver, Clyburn, Coble, Cohen, Connolly (VA), Cooper, Costa, Costello, Courtney, Crowley, Cuellar, Cummings, Dahlkemper, Davis (AL), Davis (CA), Davis (IL), Davis (TN), DeFazio, DeGette, Delahunt, DeLauro, Diaz-Balart, L., Diaz-Balart, M., Dicks, Dingell, Donnelly (IN), Doyle, Dreier, Driehaus, Edwards (MD), Edwards (TX), Ehlers, Ellison, Ellsworth, Emerson, Engel, Eshoo, Etheridge, Farr, Fattah, Filner, Foster, Frank (MA), Frelinghuysen, Fudge, Gerlach, Gingrey (GA), Gordon (TN), Grayson, Green (Al), Green (Gene), Griffith, Grijalva, Guthrie, Gutierrez, Hall (NY), Hall (TX), Halvorson, Hare, Harman, Hastings (FL), Heinrich, Higgins, Hill, Himes, Hinchey, Hinojosa, Hirono, Hodes, Hoekstra, Holden, Holt, Honda, Hoyer, Inslee, Israel, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee (TX), Johnson (GA), Johnson (IL), Johnson (E. B.), Kagen, Kanjorski, Kaptur, Kildee, Kilpatrick (MI), Kilroy, Kind, King (IA), Kissell, Klein (FL), Kosmas, Kratovil, Kucinich, Lance, Langevin Larsen (WA), Larson (CT), Latham, LaTourette, Lee (CA), Lee (NY), Levin, Lipinski, LoBiondo, Lofgren (Zoe), Lowey, Luján, Lynch, Maffei, Maloney, Manzullo, Markey (CO), Markey (MA), Massa, Matheson, Matsui, McCarthy (NY), McCollum, McCotter, McDermott, McGovern, McHugh, McIntyre, McKeon, McMahon, McNerney, Meek (FL), Meeks (NY), Melancon, Michaud, Miller (MI), Miller (NC), Miller (Gary), Miller (George), Minnick, Mitchell, Mollohan, Moore (KS), Moore (WI), Moran (VA), Murphy (CT), Murphy (NY), Murphy (Patrick), Murphy, Tim, Murtha, Myrick, Nadler (NY), Napolitano, Neal (MA), Nye, Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Ortiz, Pallone, Pascrell, Pastor (AZ), Payne, Pelosi, Perlmutter, Perriello, Peters, Peterson, Petri, Pingree (ME), Pitts, Poe (TX), Pomeroy, Price (NC), Quigley, Rahall, Rangel, Reichert, Reyes, Richardson, Rodriguez, Roe (TN), Rogers (AL), Rogers (MI), Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Rothman (NJ), Roybal-Allard, Rush, Ryan (OH), Salazar, Sanchez (Loretta), Sarbanes, Schakowsky, Schauer, Schiff, Schrader, Schwartz, Scott (GA), Scott (VA), Serrano, Sestak, Shea-Porter, Sherman, Shimkus, Shuler, Sires, Skelton, Slaughter, Smith (NJ), Smith (WA), Snyder, Souder, Space, Speier, Spratt, Stark, Stearns, Stupak, Sutton, Tanner, Tauscher, Teague, Terry, Thompson (CA), Thompson (MS), Tiberi, Tierney, Titus, Tonko, Towns, Tsongas, Turner, Upton, Van Hollen, Velázquez, Visclosky, Walden, Walz, Wasserman Schultz, Waters, Watson, Watt, Waxman, Weiner, Welch, Wexler, Wilson (OH), Woolsey, Wu, Yarmuth. THESE 298 FREE-SPENDING, POWER-MAD REPRESENTATIVES ARE ENEMIES OF GRASSROOTS MOTORSPORTS, AUTOMOTIVE LIBERTY, THE AUTOMOTIVE AFTERMARKET, AND THE COLLECTOR CAR HOBBY!

Remember, the entire HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES is up for election today(although a few unopposed representatives have already been reelected). If the name of your representative is on this infamous list, punish them today at the ballot box!

THE 60 ENEMIES OF AUTOMOTIVE FREE MARKETS IN THE U.S. SENATE WHO VOTED FOR THE "CA$H FOR CLUNKER$" BAILOUT BILL Akaka (D-HI), Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Begich (D-AK), Bennet (D-CO) Bingaman (D-NM), Bond (R-MO), Boxer (D-CA), Brown (D-OH), Burris (D-IL), Cantwell (D-WA), Cardin (D-MD), Carper (D-DE), Casey (D-PA), Cochran (R-MS), Collins (R-ME), Conrad (D-ND), Dodd (D-CT), Dorgan (D-ND), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Feinstein (D-CA), Gillibrand (D-NY), Hagan (D-NC), Harkin (D-IA), Inouye (D-HI), Johnson (D-SD), Kaufman (D-DE), Kerry (D-MA), Klobuchar (D-MN), Kohl (D-WI), Landrieu (D-LA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), Lieberman (ID-CT), Lincoln (D-AR), McCaskill (D-MO), Menendez (D-NJ), Merkley (D-OR), Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), Nelson (D-FL), Pryor (D-AR), Reed (D-RI), Reid (D-NV), Rockefeller (D-WV), Sanders (I-VT), Schumer (D-NY), Shaheen (D-NH), Specter (D-PA), Stabenow (D-MI), Tester (D-MT), Udall (D-CO), Udall (D-NM), Voinovich (R-OH), Warner (D-VA), Webb (D-VA), Whitehouse (D-RI), Wyden (D-OR). THESE 60 FREE-SPENDING, POWER-MAD SENATORS ARE ENEMIES OF GRASSROOTS MOTORSPORTS, AUTOMOTIVE LIBERTY, THE AUTOMOTIVE AFTERMARKET, AND THE COLLECTOR CAR HOBBY!

While many of these senators are not yet up for reelection and some have retired, there are several opportunities in battleground states (especially California, Nevada, Washington, Arkansas, and Ohio to send a message).

USED CAR CRASH: PRICES UP & SUPPLIES DOWN

By Hydra

Somebody in the business sent me an e-mail link to an Automotive News blog lamenting "changes" in the used car market.

The short version: since the economic crash of 2008, car dealers have been struggling to find enough quality used car "inventory." Consequently, prices are up, supplies are down and quality suffers.

At Gerald Jones Honda in Augusta, Ga., owner Andy Jones says used models are
becoming alarmingly scarce. "I normally sell 200 used vehicles a month," Jones
says. "Lately it's been hard to find that many. . . Jones recently traded
for a 2004 Buick Century with 70,000 miles. The dealership paid $6,000 for it,
installed new brakes and tires and made a few minor changes and is now asking
$8,500 for it. Says Jones: "Three years ago, that would've been a $2,500 car."

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100913/RETAIL04/309139868/1147/BLOG06#ixzz0zblFLCdQ

You don't suppose that senselessly scrapping of a million late-model vehicles in the idiotic "Cash for Clunkers" program hasn't contributed to the used car shortage? Remember: "supply and demand."

CASH FOR CLUNKERS MORON BETTY SUTTON "IN REAL TROUBLE (HEH, HEH, HEH!)"

By Hydra

Here's one for Speedy . . . the car-hating loon Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) (or is that "DOH!") apparently has a CLUNKER'S CHANCE of being reelected! According to a Politico story (linked from the Drudge Report . . . do you really think I'd read Politico otherwise?) V8-killer Betty Sutton is in "real trouble." YEAH, BABY!

Rep. Sutton carried the water . . . err . . . sodium silicate solution . . . for the Obamamaniacs in the huge, debt-funded giveaway that senselessly destroyed hundreds of thousands of useable V8s and other post-1984 special interest vehicles last year.

Without a doubt, Sutton is another free-spending, freedom-hating, bailout-loving liberal. She deserves to be turned out of office in November. I'm sure Speedy's lovin' it! (see sidebar for the names of other jerks who voted in favor of C4C)

TWENTY YEARS OF MANDATORY AIR BAGS . . . AND A FEW C4C “AIRBAGS” FROM CALIFORNIA

[Get the latest “Truth With Speedzzter” here]

On September 1, 1989, driver side air bags became mandatory in all new cars built for sale in the United States.

While the safety record for air bags is mixed (and thankfully Speedzzter has never deployed an air bag), most certainly some owe their lives to them.

Our larger problem, however, is a different kind of “air bag.”

The sort of air bag that deploys every time we exercise our automotive liberties in ways they don’t approve of. These “air bags” are “green” and are working to outlaw or regulate out of existence virtually all of the automotive hobbies and most grassroots motorsports.

The Greeniac "air bags" view almost all hot rodding as "tampering." They see all antique vehicles as "gross polluters." And they provide no alternatives or incentives to help vintage automobile enthusiasts enjoy their passion while minimizing and mitigating the environmental effects.

These Green "air bags" see car-crushing “buy backs” such as the CARS Act as a potentially potent tool in their attack on automotive liberty. Although the CARS Act has now thankfully wheezed off into history, the propaganda war for the next round of vehicle scrappage has already begun.

They are the new "mandatory air bags." Hopefully they won't stay in power for the next twenty years . . . .

Chad Lohnes over at Bangshift.com and Daniel Strohl over at Hemmings Motor News spotted a recent Los Angeles Times story by a couple of apparent "green air bags" (Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Bensinger) which trashed the Specialty Equipment Market Association’s effort to limit the horrific damage done by “Cash for Clunkers” to vehicles built after 1984.

The story, entitled “Why 'clunkers' program won't take some of the most polluting cars” amounted to a thinly-veiled call to expand the “War against V8s” and vintage vehicles to vandalize and destroy the 3-5% of the vehicle fleet that was built before 1984.

See, Truth With Speedzzter told you so!

Here's part of what I sent to one of the alleged journos via e-mail and posted over at Bangshift: (feel free to copy, modify and e-mail to them if you like)

I found your article to be highly one-sided and biased toward the state-sponsored vandalism of low-priced vintage vehicles. The free market, not some taxpayer-funded welfare program ought to decide which vehicles survive and which do not. Short-sighted schemes such as “Cash for Clunkers” corrode the free market. They also breed welfare sucklings who depend of borrowed-tax-money funded handouts. This dampens personal industry and self-reliance.

Of course the real intent of these programs is to drive people out of the automotive hobbies. As General Phillip Sheridan proposed in 1866, “Kill the buffalo and you will kill the Indians.” [see the “Buffalo” post link in the “Best of Speedzzter” sidebar]

It’s the same with vintage automobile interests. Basic economics teaches that as costs and barriers to participation rise, fewer chose to participate. If the power-mad environmental lobby can deplete the supply of affordable “vintage” donor and potential collector cars, the price of used replacement parts will necessarily skyrocket. In some situation, this could cause severe damage to the aftermarket. These state-sponsored vandalism plans also hurt vehicle resale markets and many small businesses who depend on servicing vintage vehicle market niches.

Nor do public relations “puff pieces” supporting vehicle scrappage like yours take into account the entire “life-cycle” cost to the environment of a vintage vehicle. Virtually all of the energy and pollution costs of producing a vintage vehicle have already been “amortized” to the environment. And such vehicles have a limited impact on air pollution, notwithstanding the handwringing claims of “experts’ at [the California Air Resources Board (CARB)]. The comparison of the Malibus [A CARB hack compared a pre-emission controls Chevelle with a current Malibu in the story] is most unfair, given both the rarity of such models for regular transportation use and the infinitesimally tiny amount of “pollution” of most current new vehicles. Most chain saws, motorcycles and lawn mowers probably emit several times the “pollution” as the imaginary new Malibu -- and are much more common than a vintage 1960s collector car -- but they are not singled out for venom and slack-jawed demonization. Based on their cumulative effect (e.g. vehicle miles driven), many, if not most, of the vehicles destroyed in Cash for Clunkers plans are NOT “some of the most polluting cars.”

These wasteful plans are indiscriminate. They sweep up fairly common-place utility models as well as rare milestone vehicles which have the misfortune to be at the low ebb of the depreciation cycle and in the custody of greedy, welfare-loving “appliance motorists.” However, to true students of automotive history and design, any pointless destruction of potential collector or donor vehicles is an irreplaceable loss to future generations of motoring enthusiasts.

Much like a ban on “Saturday Night Specials,” Cash for Clunkers disproportionately attacks the lower economic classes. It is therefore elitist in effect.

Cash for Clunkers programs also disproportionately affect affordable V8 powered vehicles. Some have described them a as a “war on V8s.” Given the coming hikes in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (motivated in part to placate a minority of California enviro-socialists), fewer RWD V8s will be produced and the few that survive will become significantly less affordable. Thus, one of the apparent aims of Cash for Clunkers plans is to limit the availability of traditional V8 performance vehicles.

Undoubtedly the most radical of the greens (and some allegedly “objective” journalists) will not be satisfied until vehicular liberty is decimated. A world of slaves to public transportation and/or electric micro-golf cars is their nirvana. I suspect that is your goal as well.

Your story did a real disservice to all readers who hold a more balanced, historically-sensitive perspective in the war against automotive liberty.

The discussion at Bangshift eventually turned to Hot Rod Magazine’s legendary “Crusher Camaro.” That was a project car from a couple of decades ago which was snatched out of line from a stupid UNOCAL “clunker” purchase program (If memory serves, UNOCAL was trying to offset the pollution of a California refining operation . . . which foreshadows what will happen on a larger scale if “Cap and Trade” ever become law).

Hot Rod Magazine honcho David Freiburger has written that the Crusher Camaro will likely return for an encore.
There’s a larger opportunity here.

The Crusher Camaro originally emphasized the point that properly-tuned vintage hot rods don’t really pollute all that much (especially when their limited use is factored in)

But Hot Rod could do more this go-around. The point that needs to be made now is this: if the environmentalists and CARB bureaucrats really weren't anti-hot rod and generally anti-car, they would make compliance easier and cheaper.

Maybe when Mr. Freiburger brings back the Crusher Camaro, he'll do some sort of home-brewed "green machine" version of it to tweak our know-it-all car-hating critics and point out the ridiculousness of the current regulatory scheme.

A reborn "Crusher" powered by a hybrid Tahoe powertrain** (turbocharged and converted to E-85***) would open a few eyes . . . . It would also be interesting to see how much CARB would hassle such a set-up. (CARB seemingly hates aftermarket turbocharging and CARB’s engine swap rules are byzantine to say the least.)

_______________________________

**Truth With Speedzzter realizes that this driveline is virtually unobtainable for 99.9% of rodders and that hybrids are dependent rare earth metals that are becoming in short supply And Truth With Speedzzter is also aware of the complexity of such a swap.

*** Truth With Speedzzter is aware that E-85 is often criticized as on environmental grounds, And it's not really available in Cali . . . But you can run so much more freakin' manifold pressure (turbo boost) with it!

IS CASH FOR CLUNKERS REALLY ENDING ON AUGUST 24,2009?

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

According to several media reports, the Obama administration will stop dealer funding for the "Car Allowance Rebate System [sic] at 8 p.m. August 24, 2009. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood also announced that the $3,000,000,000.00 appropriated is nearly all gone.

Is this the end of "Cash for Clunkers?"

Don't bet on it.

Washington D.C. is the one place on Earth where obvious failure can guarantee a program's continued viability.

As David Freiburger's prescient editorial in the October '09 Hot Rod Magazine predicts, the Congress will whitewash the dubious environmental benefits of the "Car Allowance Rebate System" [sic]. This will provide "cover" for the next round.

There WILL likely be a NEXT ROUND.

Truth With Speedzzter predicts that then superlobbyists like the Dave McCurdy of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers will cajole Congress into renewing the "Cash for Clunkers" welfare/bailout plan as a means of: (a) furthering the recovery; (b) reducing the newly bloated inventory of FWD wimpsters that won't sell without about $10,000.00 "cash on the hood;" and (c) making sure that New GM and Chrysler can "pay back" a fraction of the billions the taxpayers have invested in them.

The OEMS have jacked up production. Dealer lots bulging with non-selling enviromobiles will play right into this scheme.

The OEM, labor, dealer, and environmental lobbyists will use the declining impact of the CARS welfare plan and the horrible job that NHTSA has done in administering it to dramatically reduce the restrictions on what can be traded in during the next go-round of sodium silicate vandalism.

Moreover, if Cap and Trade somehow becomes law, utilities and big industrial concerns will likely devise "crusher plans" to "trade" as "offsets" or "credits" for their carbon emissions.

So why do they want to destroy old cars?

In the blinded minds of the radical, freedom-hating Greens, racing, hot rodding, tuning, customizing, antique car collecting and other grassroots automotive pursuits involving historic vehicles are "killing the Planet." These freedom-hating, power-grabbing, "we-know-what?s-best-for-you" environuts cannot fathom why anyone would waste their time pursuing any automotive hobby or automotive aftermarket vocation in the first place. They will never understand that participation in these automotive pursuits often define much of who we are (just as hiking in the woods, eating tasteless vegan food, and blocking the fast lane in their slow, wimpy Priuses defines who they are).

The liberal "true believer" greens see such "Car Crazy" "rebels" as an impediment to their dream of banishing internal combustion and the 20th Century "car culture" to the ashcan of history. And the only way to "kill the Car Nuts" and subjugate them to the "uniform, happy, shiny, government-designed, sanitized, tamper-proof, disposable electro-micro car 'reservation'" is to flatten the "obsolete," "dirty," "rebellious" objects of our "Car Crazy" passion. In other words, crushing our supply of historic and milestone parts cars and "project cars," and thereby destroying the businesses which depend on them is in essence the "slaughtering of our buffalo."

Just as slaughtering the buffalo didn't exterminate all of the Plains Indians, a well-heeled and resourceful remnant will survive [the] war on Automotive "choice." But our "tribes" will be much smaller, much more insular, and much less diverse. And the "entry costs" for participation will escalate dramatically.

* * * *

Make no mistake about it, "Cash For Clunkers" is still a declaration of war against the automotive aftermarket and all "old car" automotive-based hobbies. The current suspension is merely a truce, not the end of hostilities.

FORD FALLS BEHIND TOYOTA & NEW GM IN “C4C” WELFARE RACE

[Get the latest “Truth With Speedzzter” Here]

William Clay Ford, Jr.’s freeloading plan to cash in on the bailout bonanza through the awful “Cash for Clunkers” welfare plan hasn’t worked out so well.

According to the latest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, the EVIL EMPIRE (Toyota) and the New Obama Motors (the New GM) have both passed FoMoCo in the battle to sell taxpayer-subsidized wimpmobiles to welfare-guzzling appliance motorists.

The Financial Times (linked from the Drudge Report) provides the details:

Toyota has an 18.9 per cent share of vehicles bought so far, putting it ahead of General Motors with 17.6 per cent and Ford with 15.4 per cent. Chrysler is in fifth place, after Honda.

Three of the top five welfare whips are hideous FWD Toyotas.

So how’s that “hope and change” working out for you, Li’l Billy?

Meanwhile, “C4C” welfare pimp Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa. wrote a complaint letter to President Obama’s hapless NHTSA, griping that the deficit-bloating, borrowed/printed welfare handouts to dealers aren’t flowing fast enough.

“Welfare Joe” Sestak is challenging former RINO Arlen Specter (Disloyal Turncoat-Pa.) for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2010, so his noisy whining is undoubtedly a grandstanding ploy.

Bailout Booster Sestak alleged that the federal government had only paid out 2 percent of the welfare moocher claims submitted by the free money-hungry Auto Vandals/Dealers, while four of every five applications had been "rejected for minor oversight."

Of course anyone who has ever spent any time around a “car jacket” (auto grifter-speak for a car dealer’s file on a sales transaction) knows that paperwork compliance is usually not the strong suit of most vehicle retailers.

And as the prescient "Turbo Regal" stated over at Bangshift.com "Imagine, a government program that lots of people sign up for because they think you can get something for nothing, but in the end, fails to deliver on its promises."

Spot on, Turbo Regal!

(Isn't the dealership business model outdated anyway?)

Too bad "Welfare Joe" didn't "reject" the Ca$h for Clunker$ scam because of the "minor oversight" that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS VIRTUALLY BANKRUPT AND IS BORROWING ALL OF THIS "TOYOTATHON"/"CAR ALLOWANCE REBATE SYSTEM" [sic] GIVEAWAY MONEY FROM OUR GRANDCHILDREN!

Joe Sestak is just another wild-spending welfare-monger seeking to buy his way up the political ziggurat by "spreading the [tax-funded]'graft' around." In other words, another typical Tammany Hall-inspired Democrat . . . .

As the ranks of the potentially collectible and donor vehicles slated for senseless extermination grows, more and more anecdotes of rare, unusual and irreplaceable milestone vehicles being destroyed for another Toyota Yaris welfare voucher are coming to light.

This sordid mess is an epic disaster. (Pretty much like the "Jac-the-Knife"/Li'l Billy era at FoMoCo . . .)

WELFARE CASH FOR CLUNKERS & MARKET DISTORTIONS

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

According to the Automotive News, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is rejecting four out of every five "Cash for Clunkers" "deals." Thus, a lot of vintage V8s from the 1980s and 1990s are sucking down the sodium silicate "execution lube" and then dying in the metal shredder for nothing. (Most of the rejections are for inadequate or improper documentation)

Some greedy, welfare-loving customers have signed "waivers" that may leave them on the hook for the anticipated welfare money or forced return of their new FWD rice-grinder if NHTSA doesn't pay up.

In response to the incessant complaining of the selfish, me-first welfare sops (mostly dole-mongering dealers looking for a quick government handout), NHTSA has "agreed to allow dealers to submit cash-for-clunkers transactions for vehicles ordered from factories instead of just those purchased at a dealership." NHTSA is also jacking up the number of taxpayer-funded bureaucrats reviewing the "C4C" Welfare-Vandalism transactions by 1,000 (At an estimated $15 per hour per worker, NHTSA would be blowing an additional $600,000.00 in borrowed money per week on sorting out this fiasco and processing the welfare/bailout vouchers)

This is another step toward a permanent, government-funded vintage vehicle vandalism & destruction program. As Ronald Reagan once said, "the closest thing to eternal life here on earth is a government program." With every modification, the "Car Allowance Rebate System [sic] becomes further entrenched as an "entitlement."

Another reason the lazy freeloading dealers love "C4C" welfare is that it apparently distracts their appliance-motoring, FWD wimpcar buying, welfare suckling customers from negotiating toward reasonable, market-based transaction prices. The Wall Street Journal's "Smart Money" reports:

[A]uto data aggregator Edmunds.com found that shoppers have been getting less of a discount since the start of the program. For example, the average discount on a new Ford Escape after the Clunkers program began has slipped to 5.2% off the MSRP, compared with 5.7% before the program got underway. Consumers are paying an average $261 more. A new Dodge Caliber sold for an average price of $17,368 before Clunkers, 11.7% off MSRP, compared with an average $19,181 after the program’s start, a discount of just 3.8%.

In other words, the CARS Welfare/Bailout/Vandalism program is not only bloating the deficit and trashing hundreds of thousands of serviceable used cars (including scores of potential collector and donor vehicles), it is driving up the cost of both new AND used vehicles.

In the 1970s, we'd call the results of that sort of market tampering "inflation."

Auto dealers stand to endure another well-deserved lampooning starting this weekend with the box office release of "The Goods." Looking much like an update or pale derivation of the over-the-top 1980s comedy "Used Cars," "The Goods" rips on our perceptions of the preening, crude, unethical, self-centered and greed-saturated auto retailing industry. So far, most movie critics have slammed "The Goods."

Rated R, for containing all of the sorts of unnecessary and corrosive elements that mar a majority of contemporary films, "The Goods" may turn out as big of a raunchy fiasco as "Cash for Clunkers."

CASH FOR CLUNKERS QUOTES OF THE WEEK

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter here"]

The wasteful idiocy of the CARS Act (a/k/a "The War Against RWD V8s") is prompting some emotional responses from gearheads. Here's one found over at Bangshift.com from "Packratdave" that was too good to remain buried in a message board:

In the last 20 years most cars I have owned/driven would have gone to the junkyard had I not saved them. I feel this is real recycling. My current driver/beater (98 Chevy) was on the truck for the yard when I bought it. Less that $400 in parts later it's a good runner. ...

While out at a local Chevy dealer yesterday, had to pass the line of recently killed car to leave. A nice looking mid 1990s GMC pick up, extended cab and all waiting to be crushed was there. Better truck that I can afford as a honest car mechanic with 2kids and a mortgage.

Last week it was a sweet looking 87 Cutlass coupe, hard to find now in the northeast, that is crushed by now. I would have even taken it with the wreaked engine, got a spare. I told my wife seeing those cars, for me would be like the humane society putting dogs that they were going to put down on the front lawn with a sign saying "we are going to kill these dogs and you can't help them." Just make me sick. My wife thinks I am kind of strange, but I bet you guys (and girls) would understand.

You can just feel the emotional torture in that post. Somehow, I'll bet the chumps who "cashed in" that vintage Cutlass have no guilt as they motor on in their wimpy FWD, partially paid for by a welfare voucher . . . .

[I wonder if Vandal-in-chief Barack Hussein Obama or "Gulfstream liberals" such as William Clay Ford, Jr. ["Li'l Billy"], Botox queen "San Fran Nan," "Dingy" Harry Reid, and the legislative "Dr. Mengle" of the Ca$h for Clunker$ bailout fiasco -- Rep. Betty Sutton -- care a whit about the pain and suffering that vandalizing and shredding hundreds of thousands of vintage vehicles causes to legions of automotive enthusiasts? You can be if we were chain-sawing old-growth forests, they'd understand . . . .]

And on the wasteful aspects of Cash for Clunkers, here's a brilliant blog entry over at "Hot Air.com" by Allahpundit that shouldn't be missed:http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/01/just-a-reminder-cash-for-clunkers-requires-destroying-perfectly-usable-cars/

On a lighter note, here's some of what Truth With Speedzzter (TWS) has been saying in the Bangshift discussion lamenting C4C:

Quote from SpiderGearsMan: "Harvard is the most expensive school -therefore it is the best"

TWS: That's sort of like what the "gold chainers" in the Ferraris and Porsches say (just before you smoke 'em in some home-built primered "heap")


Quote from antmnte: "They should give us the 2 billion I bet we can find some cars to buy, call it cash for keepers.Maybe get another going for tires and call it cash for burnouts."

TWS: Cash for Burnouts! That's almost tempts me to go for some of this welfare . . . No! Got . . . to . . . stay . . . strong . . .

BONUS:

"With social media, you can be vapid, boring and annoying with alarming frequency," Patricia Vaccarino, owner of a Seattle public relations firm, warned clients in a newsletter.

Sounds like she's been reading "Truth With Speedzzter," eh, Li'l Billy? . . . .

"OH WHAT A FEELING:” TOYOTA, NOT FORD, WINNING CASH FOR CLUNKERS WELFARE FEST

[Get the latest Truth With Speedzzter here]

As the U.S. Senate prepares to waste $2,000,000,000.00 more in freshly printed money borrowed from Communist China on the boondoggle known as Cash for Clunkers, it appears that Japan’s Toyota is making out like a bandit.

Early reports that the Ford Focus was the number one selling welfare poster-child for the “War on V8s” may have been incorrect. Now Toyota’s Corolla is the most popular car of choice for selfish looters who think our grandchildren ought to spot them an unearned $4,500.00 for a new car.

Four of the top five boring “transportation appliances” being purchased with CARS welfare-bailout funds are models sold by Japanese invaders. Three of the top five are from the “Evil Empire” (Toyota). (That ought to make “Rowdy” Kyle Busch and the “NASCAR Nation” ecstatic).

Ford has slumped to third in sales, behind the New GM and Toyota.

Surely this isn’t what “bailout” voucher-monger William Clay Ford, Jr. had in mind when he vigorously campaigned for the CARS Act.

On the other hand, considering FoMoCo’s pitiful performance last Monday at Pocono (a Toyota “FunnyCar of Tomorrow” won and not a single common-template “Ford” made the top 10), perhaps “Win on Monday, make welfare-subsidized sales on Tuesday” is the new rule of not-very-stock car racing.

The impotent Senate Republicans apparently got rolled on re-upping “C4C.” Although any amendment of the House version would have killed this welfare-bailout program until after the August recess (because the House couldn’t schedule a vote), the apparently clueless GOP leadership couldn’t engineer a “poison pill” amendment.

Or more likely, the Senate GOPers didn’t really want to. Redistributionist “money for nothing” schemes like the CARS Act are supposed to be against the GOP creed. But auto dealers historically have overwhelmingly supported Republicans. And big business lobby groups, such as the National Automobile Dealers Association and the Association of Automobile Manufacturers most certainly have been lobbying hard for TWO THOUSAND MILLION DOLLARS more bailout “cash on-the-hood.”

So the defanged Senate Republicans seemingly raised token opposition. A filibuster apparently wasn’t even threatened. Nor did they try for a deal with left-wing Democrats to reduce eligibility or increase the spread between the “clunker” m.p.g. and the replacement “appliance” m.p.g. Nor did they revisit the issue of whether a majority of the borrowed bailout money should be going offshore to Asian and European automakers. Any of these amendments would have stopped the bleeding of the treasury and put the brakes on "C4C."

Instead, the Senate GOP went through the motions and caved into the “reality” that the “votes were there” to balloon the deficit even further by funding more sodium silicate “murders” of potentially collectable V8-powered vehicles from the 1980s and 1990s. (The toothless GOP similarly caved on the nomination of uber-liberal activist Justice Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court)

Cash for clunkers has taken another step toward becoming another permanent middle-class entitlement program. The not-so-free market has taken another broadside. The longer the "C4C" virus hangs around, the worse its corrosive effects will become.

An additional FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND vintage vehicles will be vandalized and crushed as a result of the funding. Some estimate this could inflate used car prices in the sub-$4,500.00 strata by $300.00 to $800.00 per vehicle. On models hardest hit by “C4C,” future price increases may be even higher.

Moreover, borrowing money to “invest” in depreciating assets like imported automobiles – that sounds almost like the sort of “hedge fund” shenanigans that helped trigger the financial crisis in the first place. It's hardly an engine for creation of stable, long-term jobs. It's more like a "crack cocaine" stimulus (a quick "hit" followed by an inevitable hard crash and a craving for another "fix")

But what’s worse, is the entitlement mentality that is reinforced by these welfare vouchers. The current giveaway is merely priming the pump for the greeniac’s dream “C4C” program, which would not have as many limits and would imperil many more collector and donor vehicles. And "C4C" is likely the new "rebate:" a corrosive pricing gimmick that never really goes away once the door is opened to it.

And for all of this, we’ll spend a net $20,000.00 per additional vehicle sold, cannibalize future sales from a time when GM, Ford and Chrysler might have been better positioned to compete, stick our kids with billions in new debt, kickstart inflation in some sectors of the automobile markets, further drive down our abysmal savings rate, further populate our highways with more soulless FWD Japanese invader “appliances” (as we simultaneously loot and shred our recent automotive heritage), and teach yet another generation that welfare vouchers and federal handouts are the answer.

To borrow from an old “Evil Empire” advertising slogan – Oh, What a [Wonderful] Feeling.

WHAT ARE THEY HIDING? OBAMAIANS STALL ON CASH FOR CLUNKERS DATA RELEASE

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According to the Associated Press, "The Obama administration is refusing to quickly release government records on its "cash-for-clunkers" rebate program. . . ."

What are they hiding?

Based on the scanty information that has been released "six of the top 10 vehicles purchased are Honda, Toyota and Hyundai."

How about that, Lil Billy? Our 1980s and 1990s automotive heritage is being pillaged for a hoard of forgettable Japanese invader "transportation appliances."

However, the Obama Administration's foot-dragging on the release of the electronic data received from the welfare/bailout-loving dealers means that "it's difficult to determine whether the administration is overselling the claim without seeing what's being sold, what's being traded in and where the cars are being sold."

How can the U.S. Senate responsibly approve any more money for this giveaway mess until the Obama Administration comes clean with the "transparency" they've repeatedly promised?

Instead, the National Automobile Dealers Association, the Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the "Gucci Gulch" lobbyists for other taxpayer money-grubbing leeches want the Senate to triple the waste without even a rudimentary accounting on the first wave of welfare/bailout money. Sounds like TARP, doesn't it?

CASH FOR CLUNKERS: THE "$800 TOILET SEAT" OF THE BAILOUT

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According to Avery Goodman, at Seeking Alpha, Edmunds.com has calculated that the $1,000,000,000.00 in borrowed money that the federal government has blown on the Ca$h for Clunker$ welfare/bailout program will yield a net increase in sales of between 22,000 and 86,000 units.

Remember, payout of welfare vouchers for vehicles that would have sold anyway does not yield any net benefit to sales. Thus, only sales that would not have occurred but for the bailout cash on-the-hood are the true measure of the program's effects.

In other words, the cost to the taxpayers for each one of those additional sales is between $45,354.00 to $11,628.00 per car!

Goodman posits that a $20,000.00 per additional unit sold (over what ordinarily would have been sold without the CARS welfare voucher) is a reliable estimate.

But, it's not clear that all of these sales increases are true increases (i.e. cars that would never have been bought but for the welfare voucher). Some of the sales are undoubtedly canabalized from future sales that would have occurred regardless.

The sales last month from the federal incentives may result in fewer buyers later this year after the program ends, George Pipas, Ford’s sales analyst, told CNBC today.

Thus, the cost-per-additional-sale could possibly be even higher.

Goodman concludes:

The "cash for clunkers" program is yet another boondoogle - an expensive waste of precious taxpayer dollars. Government spending should be reined in, in light of the multi-trillion dollar unsustainable deficits that this nation now faces. However, if we must increase government spending, the money would be better spent on infrastructure and education improvements that might help bring jobs back to America, and encourage long term growth, rather than cosmetic improvements to the short term earnings of makers of high mileage automobiles, many of which are foreign companies.

This government is, unfortunately, a reflection of the current state of economic immaturity that prevails in America. The vast majority of people, including most people in Congress, do not understand the forces that drive the real economy, and see only the short term view. That is how they get manipulated into allowing the Federal Reserve to behave like a slush fund for big banks, passing programs like TARP into law, and enacting programs like "cash for clunkers" which all abuse the taxpayers.

CASH FOR CLUNKERS: JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

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The frenzied "gold rush" for borrowed welfare money better known as "Ca$h for Clunker$" has temporarily abated as the greedy looter-vandals await the "mack daddies" in the U.S. Senate to print and spend billions more.

The "halftime" pause has allowed time for a host of sickening viral videos on how government suckling dealers vandalize perfectly good engines (mostly V8s) to qualify for their CARS welfare checks. Some engines have fought destruction for as long as 45 minutes. As one technician destroying a Ford Bronco engine says as he watches the sickening sight "What a waste! What a Waste!"
These videos have captured the attention of talk radio and cable news.

This is causing an emerging backlash against the CARS program. Here as some examples:

What a bunch of fraud, waste, and abuse on all levels up to Obama. Stupid program, and these clowns featured in this video are the monkey wrenchers that fix peoples cars that are unable to themselves. There ain't no freakin' difference between neutral and park for revving it up you dork. Except maybe it could roll over you as you try to kill it. Built Ford Tough Bronco windsor holdin' strong to the very end...

What a waste. Good vehicles being self-destructed from within. They can take this "clunker" program and... Well you get the idea.

This is the Automobile Holocaust... what it means to you is higher taxes in the years to come.

One Autoblog reader, BoxerFanatic, however, saw the larger truth in the Cash For Clunkers bailout:

[O]nce everybody who has a clunker, and wants a Focus, already have them... the artificial demand will CRASH.

Tech bubble. Housing bubble, cash/stock market bubble (remember 14,000?), and now automotive bubble. Every time demand is artificially spiked, it crashes to compensate.

Good, viable cars are still being destroyed and sent to China, rather than being utilized to their fullest extent.

The government is still leveraging this with future borrowed money, because they are already broke.

Government is still printing money, monetizing [its] own debt, borrowing from China, and will need to raise taxes.

Tax revenue stats just came out... the LOWEST adjusted decline in tax revenue since the great depression... (I hate that they call seizure "revenue", as if the government earns anything... they TAKE money away from people who earn it. WELL beyond what the Constitution limits the government to do.)

the government is spending money faster than ever, and tax money into the government is dropping to historic lows... and debt and deficits are at astronomical, soon to be unrecoverable highs...

Gee, what could be wrong with that...

It used to be Gub'ment cheese. Now it's Gub'ment cars. It is re-distribution, and waste of private wealth either way, and it is not acceptable.

How about if Ford wants to sell the cars, how about they sell their cars on merit, rather than on welfare assistance.

Truth With Speedzzter couldn't have said it better. CASH FOR CLUNKERS IS JUST THE "TIP OF THE ICEBERG" ON WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY!

Ford, of course, is benefitting the most among the Detroit 3 from the Cash for Clunkers bailout. However MORE THAN 50 PERCENT OF THE CARS WELFARE VOUCHERS ARE GOING FOR THE SUBSIDIZED PURCHASE OF FOREIGN BRANDED VEHICLES. (JUST AS TRUTH WITH SPEEDZZTER PREDICTED)

The Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association was also among those predicting a backlash against the CARS welfare plan:

"It wouldn't surprise me if there is a consumer backlash once car owners realize that 'Cash for Clunkers' is nothing more than a clever slogan for a program to spend $1 billion of our tax dollars to fund a government subsidized vehicle trade-in to help new car dealers sell cars," said Kathleen Schmatz, AAIA president and CEO. "Consumers will soon learn that they are simply trading in their vehicle and will still have to jump through all of the hoops to qualify for and purchase a new vehicle."

The much heralded fuel efficiency and environmental benefits of purchasing a new vehicle could easily be achieved through better maintenance of an existing vehicle or trading up to a newer used vehicle, according to AAIA. Any savings from improved miles per gallon will be lost from the costs involved in destroying and disposing of the "clunkers."

AAIA has strongly opposed "Cash for Clunkers" that prematurely destroys vehicles and their valuable parts and components. "Destroying vehicles with many more years of life denies consumers more affordable used vehicles and pulls vehicles from the aftermarket supply chain," said Schmatz.

The Consumer Allowance Rebate System, the [Orwellian newspeak] official name for "Cash for Clunkers," offers vouchers up to $4,500 to new car dealerships for consumers who trade-in their vehicle for a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle.

I wonder what Ford's VANDAL-IN-CHIEF, William Clay Ford, Jr. ("Li'l Billy") thinks of when he hears another potentially collectable Ford V8 is being wasted with a sodium silicate solution? Is all that he can hear the cash register ringing up another taxpayer funded "bailout" sale?

Cash for Clunkers needs to die . . . now! Urge your Senator to vote against additional funding for destroying V8s and European vehicles from the 1980s and 1990s.

CA$H FOR CLUNKER$: PANIC OR BANKRUPT?

[Get the latest “Truth With Speedzzter” here]

The news about the welfare/bailout giveaway known as CARS (which now means in a twist of Orwellian newspeak the “Car Allowance Rebate System” [sic]) has been all over the place for the last day or so.

Some stories say “Cash for Clunkers” is virtually bankrupt.

Others suggest the Government has only bought 22,782 vehicles for senseless destruction, with a backlog applications pending, and a panic among overwhelmed bureaucrats.

Some reports say the program is suspended.

Others say it is not.

Whatever proves to be the case, Cash for Clunkers has reaffirmed that America has no shortage of welfare-loving sucklings who are out for a quick, unearned “score” from big government.

And there’s no shortage of greedy enablers who would mindlessly vandalize our recent automotive heritage and mortgage our children’s futures for a quick hit of free money. (William Clay Ford, Jr. and Ford Motor Company included in this motley array of bailout cash beggars)

Nor are there any shortages of pandering welfare pimps who are milking the taxpayers for political gain. For example, RINO Representative Candice Miller wrote the big-spending Democrat welfare queens running the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, clucking for more borrowed/printed bailout money to shovel to her bailout-hungry corporate constituents.

RINO Miller claims that “This is the most stimulative $1 billion the federal government has spent during the entire economic downturn . . . The federal government must come up with more money, immediately, to keep this program going.”

Fire up the printing press, eh Candice? $1,000,000,000.00 is mere pocket change in a stampede on the public treasury.

CARS sponsor [AND CHIEF, BIG SPENDING AUTOMOTIVE VANDAL] Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, who wanted [TO WASTE] $4 billion [IN MONEY ADDED TO THE DEFICIT], got the news from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Thursday night, according to Sutton's chief of staff Nichole Francis Reynolds. Reynolds said, "The program's spent [BLOWN THROUGH] $150 million and has another $800 million to $850 million in (pending) obligations [WELFARE/BAILOUT GIVEAWAYS]… This is one of those programs you can really see working." She says CARS has "overwhelming support" and Sutton was pressing to free more money to continue the program.

[How someone could intellectually prostitute themselves to work for a wild-spending, money-wasting leach like Rep. Betty Sutton is a profound mystery. As to Ms. Reynolds' claim of "overwhelming support" for the welfare-bailout cash giveaway frenzy, we shouldn't be surprised when the shiftless and lazy looters line up for another handout, should we? ]

Other welfare lovers will apparently try to do the bidding of the power-mad environmentalist lobby.

U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein of California and [RINO] Susan Collins of Maine said any extension of the incentive must require greater fuel efficiency and higher reductions of auto emissions.

In other words, it’s not enough to force hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable V8s off the road in favor of mostly imported, disposable FWD crap-boxes, RINO Collins, Di Fi and their greeniac friends want to make sure that the welfare vouchers only go for the purchase of a fleet of tiny, soulless deathtraps-on-wheels.

Just as Truth With Speedzzter predicted, the first $1,000,000,000.00 was only to get the fetid nose of the car-crushing camel under the tent. It was only the start of the looters' raid on the public treasury. The taxpayer-borrowed money funded war on future collector cars built in the 1980s and 1990s will become another bloated, wasteful government entitlement program.

It will become another gilded political football thrown about by a greed-soaked cadre of paid hack lobbyists who represent the bailout loving auto dealers and manufacturers.

It will allow a hoard of lazy mopes to leach more “free money” they haven’t earned from the government.

It will lead to another huge transfer of our kids and grandkids money mostly to the Asians – all in exchange for a fleet of ugly, gutless FWD wimpmobiles and some quickly exhausted “stimulus.”

And it will lead to the tragic obliteration of a generation of V8s and the diverse and interesting vehicles in which they were installed – vehicles which under normal free market conditions should have been available for restoration, hot rodding, motorsports and spare parts.

Cash for Clunkers was “bankrupt” before the first welfare-bailout dollar was paid out.

FORD POPULARITY SOARS BECAUSE OF THE BAILOUTS (BUT SHOULD IT?)

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According to Rassmusen Reports "46% of Americans now saying they are more likely to buy a car from Ford because it did not take government money to stay in business."

Rassmusen also found that "nearly one-out-of-five Americans (19%) say someone in their family or a friend has chosen not to buy a car from GM or Chrysler because they took bailout money."

This is good news for FoMoCo's stakeholders and long-suffering Ford fans. Ford's stock is up a whopping TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR PERCENT over its lowest price of the year. Ford posted posted a profit in the last quarter (albeit based on accounting "special items. "Excluding special items, Ford would have posted a loss of $424 million, or 21 cents per share."). And several analysts believe that Ford's product line-up is one of the freshest around.

BUT . . .

Much of this optimistic news is spoiled by Ford's endless shilling about "recycling your ride" into the V8-smashing "Cash for Clunkers" program.

"Cash for clunkers is a bailout by any other name."

It's "terrible energy policy."

It "incentivizes Americans to take on more debt."

Cash for clunkers is still welfare.

It's laundered bailout money. It's another abandonment of free market principles. It's still borrowing money we don't have to redistribute it to people who haven't earned it. It's still the pillaging and vandalism of thousands of potential collector and parts vehicles built after 1984. It's still a war on V8s and against grassroots motorsports (which depend on the sorts of "clunkers" that Welfare/Beer Bust King Obama, the environmentalists and the greedy public dole sucklings are destroying).

Ford vigorously campaigned for the CARS legislation, so they ARE benefitting from "bailout" money (i.e. Dealers get the CARS welfare vouchers they then spend to help buy the vehicles from Ford -- only the most myopic can't see that this is "bailout" cash to Ford)

Apparently the myopic ones were interviewed by Rassmussen . . . .

AND IT'S ALREADY OUT OF MONEY! (Apparently there's no shortage of welfare lovers in America . . . .)

AUTOEXTREMIST: HONDA INVADES FORMULA FORD?

The Autoextremist is reporting that Honda's push in grassroots motorsports will take a decidedly anti-Ford direction.

Part of this is supposedly targeted at taking on Ford in SCCA's Formula Ford. The Big H claims its going to sell racers a built "Fit" mill and a conversion package, starting in 2010 (pending club approval, of course).">Part of this is supposedly targeted at taking on Ford in SCCA's Formula Ford. The Big H claims its going to sell racers a built "Fit" mill and a conversion package, starting in 2010 (pending club approval, of course).

Supposedly Ford Racing honcho Brian Wolfe says that Ford won't take Honda's "invasion" lying down. (Ford's Walter Hayes invented "Formula Ford" so there's some corporate pride on the line. (Hopefully more than when Ford wimped out on Cosworth, Formula One and Indy Cars))

Maybe Wolfe could just show Honda a photo of the homely 2010 NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES MUSTANG and probably scare 'em back to Japan . . . .

MORE BANGSHIFT COMMENTS ON THE "MOTORSPORTS PARK" IDEA AND THE PROBLEM OF NOT ENOUGH LOCAL RACE TRACKS

Yesterday's discussion of the problem of not enough convenient venues for grassroots motorsports prompted further discussion at Bangshift:
TWS's next take: (in response to support for the denial of a public drag racing facility in Forks, Washington)

I think some are missing the big picture here.

* * *
What it's really about is whether hot rodders, racers and other responsible citizens are going to settle for a sparse number of big, private, expensive regional motorsports venues, or whether more smaller, local venues ought to be available.

Clearly the trend over the past three decades has been toward fewer and fewer local tracks and more ostentatious regional tracks. Some states barely have one or two drag strips and/or road courses left. Dirt ovals are perhaps a little more common, but paved ovals outside of NASCAR's orbit are in decline.

It's no answer to the problem of street racing to say "just load your car up in a hauler and drive a couple of hours to sit in long lines at a regional NHRA track, in hopes of making a couple of passes." Moreover, the harder we make it for younger tuners and rodders to get involved in all forms of motorsports, the fewer people will bother to become involved.

In the early '50s, the appliance motorists and "safety counsels" wanted to shut down all hot rodding. But some visionary pioneers started working with the locals to build small, local, non-profit facilities. But for the efforts of these "out-of-the-box" thinkers, our automotive culture would have developed far differently. Creating local facilities was the right thing to do then. And it's the right thing to do now.

Certainly, times have changed in sixty years. Motorsports is more diverse. Environmentalism is a concern. And safety is paramount. But for local officials and racers to settle for the occassional private facility and to put up roadblocks to smaller, more convenient, less formal, public service motorsports venues is counterproductive.

Every town and city over about 15,000-20,000 residents ought to have a legal place to test, tune and race that's no more than thirty minutes away. (I can just about guarantee you that virtually every city that size has one or more golf courses, many of which are managed and funded by local governments) These multipurpose facilities could also be justified to the non-gearhead taxpayers as "driver training" parks for use by law enforcement and new drivers. For example just imagine how many accidents could be avoided and lives saved if more new drivers could be locally trained in car control on a dedicated wet skid pad and on a handling (autocross) course. Such facilities could also include various other "test" areas, including mostly self-service drag strips, a banked track and a road course. Such facilities could also include motocross and 4WD/ATV trails/test areas.

To do any of this, we've got to expand our vision as to what a modern, local motorsports facility ought to be and how it ought to be managed and paid for at the local level.

Of course, Forks isn't that big, so perhaps smaller rural areas would have to scale down their motorsports parks. But to say to all of the gearheads and potential gearheads "Sorry, you can't use the airport anymore, there's a big track 100 miles away, and we don't think the "car culture" is important enough to provide a safe, legal place to test, tune, and race" just doesn't cut it. It's irresponsible. If we took this same approach to building highways, vast sections of America would still be served by unpaved, minimally improved roads. If we took this same approach to parks, trails, and lakes, many areas wouldn't have them.

Of course, the irony is that airports are often heavily subsidized by government in the name of safety. Yet general aviation has only a fraction of the participants and potential participants of motorsports. However, aviators have done a much better job in lobbying for public investment in local public facilities for their avocation.

TWS's next take: (Response to Bangshifter and Friend-of-Freiburger Brian Lohnes point that public funding would be a huge problem in most locales)

Brian,

You're absolutely correct that funding is the proverbial "elephant in the room." It's a bigger problem than even environmental impacts.

Nearly every state and local government is cash-strapped. Lots of things more essential than parks and recreation are being slashed.

And that's part of the reason hot rodders and racers need to "sell" the motorsports park concept on the basis of safety, driver training, and multiple uses. And multiple levels of government and the private sector ought to be involved.

Most certainly, some places would need to start smaller, such as temporarily closing off an underused public street or parking lot on the weekend (e.g. San Diego's "Race Legal" program) or by adding some "test and tune" amentites to fairgrounds or other public facilities. Some of these things could be done in many locales without huge tax increases.

But when we read of the struggles of the Brotherhood of Street Racers and Terminal Island out in L.A. or hear of another historic track folding to zoning, environmental, and "land use" pressures, it seems that we're not making any progress.

What's troubling is that someone like Cameron Argetsinger couldn't even get a hearing nowadays from most local officials. Certainly Argetsinger's original Watkins Glen plan of the late ''40s and '50s wasn't up to modern safety standards, but the idea of public facilitation of safe, legal motorsports activities at the heart of it should still be viable.

TWS's next take:

Quote from: Buickguy on Today at 07:36:22 AM

"So what? the city decided they can't afford it. I decided I can't afford a ZR1 Corvette, does that mean I'm entitled to it because I want it?
There's a bit of a problem with the greenie belief - you might want to see who owns Spokane Motorsports Park..... last I checked, Spokane is in Washington."


It's not a matter of entitlement. Is anyone "entitled" to a public lake stocked with fish? Or the services of game wardens who scientifically manage the population of animals for sport hunting? Or a lighted landing strip at a non-commercial municipal airport? Or a tee time at a municipal golf course. Or swimming at a municipal pool (most of which are subsidized)?

At its most basic level, government is about protecting our liberty and enabling the sorts of projects that are too big and difficult for the private sector. That's why functions such as building roads, public recreation areas, and schools are generally believed to be legitimate functions of government. Many of those functions are not self-supporting (How many of you paid a toll to drive on a city street today?)

We should have the liberty to build and enjoy hot rods and engage in other motorsports if we so choose. That's part of that "pursuit of happiness" idea. But if there's no safe and legal place to do it, our theoretical liberty is meaningless.

Thus, the language of "entitlement" clearly isn't applicable. But that doesn't mean that hot rodders and racers shouldn't promote the development of "solutions" that improve safety and promote greater exercises of liberty. That's going to be a tough sell to those knownothing politicians who believe that "speed kills."

It's a false dichotomy to suggest that the only choices facing most municipalities are: (a) no tolerance and virtual criminalization of motorsports or (b) spend huge sums on national-quality motorsports facilities. It's akin to saying either a city can build either dirt trails or ten-lane interstate highways and nothing else. The starting point for the dialogue ought to be how can the local and state governments work together with all the stakeholders to improve safety and maximize liberty.

SPEEDZZTER ON THE RAY NICHOLS/EPA SUPERBIRD, MAYFIELD V. NASCAR, DON GARLITS, AND THE WAR AGAINST MUSCLE CARS

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Truth With Speedzzter (TWS) has been hanging out over at Bangshift where a number of interesting topics are under discussion.

1. The Three Million Dollar Ray Nichols / EPA Plymouth Superbird

TWS's take:

At one level, this doesn't really seem much more insane than the million dollars paid for the Ray Allen LS6 Malibu Convertible a couple of years ago at Barrett-Jackson by a "private collector" (who is now apparently having RM Auctions liquidate it and about 80 other race cars and hot rods at the Petersen Museum on September 26, 2009 (See http://www.rmauctions.com/PressRelease.cfm?PressID=668 or pay RM EIGHTY DOLLARS for a catalog (Talk about insane!)))

On the other hand, paying even six figures for any muscle car (not to mention THREE MILLION DOLLARS) probably represents a triumph of ego gratification over common sense. Still, it's good that some collectors are apparently motivated to pay the crazy money necessary to preserve many of these unique historical vehicles for future generations.

2. The Burnout Kid (Kid wrecks Dad's collector car after an epic burnout)

TWS's take:

I wonder if his friends got a picture of the smoke for Car Craft's "burnout" page?

3. Another Don Garlits comeback?

TWS's take:

Actually, although the NHRA does have more opportunities for "senior drivers" than virtually any other motorsport (because of the limited duration of the races and lessened physical demands on drivers), it's too bad that the promoters, manufacturers, and sanctioning bodies haven't figured out a way to develop viable "seniors tour" championships for drag, oval and road racing.

There are probably a lot of fans who'd still pay to see famous septuagenarians like Garlits still mixing it up on a regular basis (see e.g. the celebration of octogenarian Hershell McGriff's return to stock cars http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/from_the_marbles/post/81-year-old-NASCAR-driver-will-outdrive-you-punk?urn=nascar,171500)

And don't senior citizens need role models too?

4. Mayfield v. NASCAR (Why do so many people hate NASCAR?)

TWS's take:

There are several imbeded and overarching conflicts motivating the "fan boys" on both sides of the Mayfield controversy:

1. Monolithic dictatorship vs. the little guy (the following factors are motivating beliefs and concerns)

a. NASCAR's five decades of crushing those who don't "go along."
b. American individualism and the "underdog" preference.
c. Fear of "crossing" or criticizing NASCAR (see subpoint "a" above).
d. Widespread fear of getting caught up in a similar bureaucratic nightmare/SNAFU and not being able to defend against it.
e. Distrust of accumulations of power.

2. Angst over drug testing vs. worries over the effects of drug abuse on society.

a. Concern over loss of privacy to bureaucratic "War on Drugs" measures.
b. Concern about the "role model" effect of even minor celebrities such as Mayfield.
c. Concern that illegal drugs are making society more dangerous, more selfish, less productive, and less safe.
d. NASCAR's hypocrisy (sport built on the foundation of Southern bootleggers, moonshiners, and tobacco/alcohol money).

3. Hatred of NASCAR for ruining "stock car" racing vs. Unquestioned loyalty to "The Show."

4. "Old" NASCAR vs. "Modern" NASCAR. (i.e. The hope that anything that "brings down" the "Modern" NASCAR could help the return of what was good about the "Old" NASCAR)

5. Libertarianism vs. Support for law & order.

6. Rebellion vs. Conformity.

7. Distrust of NASCAR's objectivity and procedures vs. faith in NASCAR's bureaucracy.

For some, its just personal (e.g. they like Mayfield and/or don't like Brian France). There's also probably a lot of "tweakers" who simply wouldn't want Mayfield (if he's actually on meth) to suffer any punishment for doing the same thing they're doing.

TWS's second take:

["Every type of racing eventually gets ruined . . . ." -- Mopar57]

Racing gets ruined because the sanctioning bodies have not found any way to beat the "cycle."

1. Beginnings -- pioneers of the sport experiment in obscurity and set the basic parameters of the sport

2. Period of grassroots innovation (mostly sportsmen and innovators battling on their own money in front of a few locals or in obscurity. In retrospect, these are usually remembered as the "golden days" of the sport, notwithstanding the carnage that often results from "pushing the envelope" )

3. Emergence of commercial viability (stars, sponsors, professional teams, media attention, sanctioning body bureaucracy, basic rules and parameters take a set)

4. Dominance -- one or a few professionals start to "stink up the show" by "breaking out" to dominate all of the events (this is when the huge haulers and the super-teams emerge, often with factory backing)

5. Shakeout -- marginal teams get tired of getting slaughtered and the sportsmen move on; rules packages start to squelch grassroots innovation as a means to "level the playing field", marginal promoters/tracks ushered out by move to increased "professionalism" and higher event costs (appearance fees, sanctioning fees, prize money).

6. Crisis (some star gets hurt or killed, economic crisis, fad wears off, too many marginal teams leave the sport, older tracks close)

7. Protectionism -- rules are conformed to protect the monopoly of a few professional professional teams and their "stars" and the "loyal" tracks & promoters. Outsiders, grassroots dreamers and nonconformists are excluded.

8. Stagnation -- sport trapped in "feedback loop" of Stages 4-7 as new stars are groomed and older stars/teams are replaced. Mass media and savvy promoters may increase fan base for a while but the novelty often wears off. "OG" fans start becoming alienated as too many traditions are lost. Sanctioning body is focused on maximizing revenue and keeping the super-teams/stars happy.

9. Decline -- lack of innovation, barriers to grassroots entry, and too much stagnation starts killing the sport.

Just name a type of racing and I can show how this "cycle" has occurred.

TWS's third take:

Quote from: Brian Lohnes on July 28, 2009, 11:19:56 AM
"Swamp Buggies and LSR.

You're 100% right on your cycle for any truly popular form of racing though. The niche stuff can maintain it's purity as there is minimal commerical investment.

Money corrupts all."



That's what my boss says every time I ask for a raise . . . .

And if Diamond P's American Sports Cavalcade would have just covered the Swampers a little more (or Sumner Redstone not bought The Nashville Network from the Gaylord family and turned the TNN cable channel into "Spike") maybe even the buggies would have gotten past stage 3 . . . .

It also could be that nearly all forms of "clock racing" (e.g. autocross, LSR, hill climbs, and other non-side-by-side forms) are exceptions to the "cycle" because they never become commercially viable or have such diversity and decentralization that sportsmen never have to directly compete with the stars or the factories.

On the other hand, some fairly unpopular forms of racing (judging from the number of fans in the seats, the TV ratings, and the magazine ink) are definitely subject to the "cycle" (i.e. many forms of sports car racing; dirt oval track racing).

TWS's fourth take:

Quote from: Brian Lohnes on July 28, 2009, 04:31:16 PM
"Speed, my personal hero is EJ Potter. Not sure if you know of or about him, but if not google him up. A great empirical thinker and a truly neat guy.

Potter came up with an idea for what he saw as the perfect form of automotive competition a few years ago and it was published here. It's a neat read. Potter saw this form of competition as being immune from the corruption of purpose (hell I'm starting to sound like you) that big money brings to racing.

This is one of my favorite things to read every now and again. EJ's a very neat guy and I've had the pleasure of talking t to him several times.


Check it out...

Part 1 -- http://www.draglist.com/artman/publish/daily_stories/article_1030.shtml
Part 2 -- http://www.draglist.com/artman/publish/daily_stories/article_1031.shtml


Brian"

We've certainly drifted off-topic a bit . . . .

Yeah, I'm old enough to remember E.J. Potter and his crazy SBC Harley. He's a legend.

But his idea, of course, has been "corrupted" (i.e. Engine Masters Challenge http://www.popularhotrodding.com/enginemasters/dynopulls/index.html)

Potter admits that much of the motivations for competitive hot rodding are "showing off" (excluding, of course, hot rodding's private gratification and entertainment effects -- to which Warren Oates's G.T.O. in "Two-Lane Blacktop" erroneously alleged -- without any actual experience -- that "Those satisfactions are permanent" (They're not, as the legion of "for sale" vehicles at any Goodguys or NSRA event or collector car auction can demonstrate))

"Showing off" requires somebody to watch and lawful venues for the contest. By eliminating uninvolved spectators and promoters/track owners as mostly superfluous, Potter's plan deprives hot rodders of much of the "fuel" and "air" for "showing off." Back before NASCAR, a couple of bootleggers racing their 'shine haulers on an improvised oval in pasture somewhere simply didn't stroke the egos of the "show offs" enough. Besides, racing, like most "masculine" competitions, really boils down to attracting girls and besting rivals for the "best" girls. Thus, "showing off" in relative obscurity doesn't really cut it.

Certainly You Tube and the internet allow for "virtual" spectators and clandestine (often illegal) locations. But a better solution would be for the development of public access "speed parks" that are not dependent upon the "big event/full grandstand/broadcast TV" model for financing.

Of course (back on topic) Mayfield is may soon learn about the dissatisfactory nature of having to "show off" in obscurity . . . .

5. New York Times says muscle cars are bad

TWS's take:

Quote from: Schtauffer on Today at 07:37:52 AM

"Someone from the city of New York writing an editorial about which cars everyone else should like-- that sounds like a vegan saying what kind of meat tastes good."

Do we really expect people who travel by taxi, "black car service" and subway to understand anything about motoring or motorsports or automotive freedom?

Global warming has taken on the elements of a quasi-religion in the toney echo-chambers of the elites. (http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Global+warming+religion+First+World+urban+elites/1835847/story.html) The NYT editorial merely reflects what's being said in some of the exclusive coastal coctail circuits, where "climate change" assumptions are elements of "faith."

On the other hand, back in the '50s and '60s, the appliance motorists and the mainstream press were often campaigning against the "evils" of speed, racing, muscle cars and hot rods, so what's really new here?

Tom McCahill put it best in 1966, when somebody wrote into Mechanix Illustrated to ask why Detroit was downplaying horsepower and playing up cubic inch displacement. "Horsepower" was then the safety/environmental/Insurance lobby's whipping boy. Paraphrasing from memory, McCahill opined that even the next-to-dumbest kid on-the-block could make comparisons on basis of cubic inches, but that the dumbest kids were in the Senate and Detroit was hoping that they wouldn't be able to figure it out . . . .

And why should we be surprised that they're using 1980 as a benchmark. That's what the environmental bureaueaucrats and policymakers have been doing for a while now. (See http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/2007/04/epa-hack-back-to-dismal-70s-again.html ; http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/2007/07/pee-eewww-liberal-pew-campaign-spews.html ; http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/2008/04/whackos-click-and-clacks-tm-earth-day.html)

5. Formula One: Massa's injury and Renault's suspension

TWS's take:

A Brawn launches a part that nearly killed Massa (and most likely has ended his career) and no suspension, but Renault muffs a tire change, no one gets hurt, but Renault is suspended.

Logical?

On the other hand, the stewards claim that Renault knowingly released Alonso's car without the wheel nut retainer in place, and then didn't even tell him when he complained of tire trouble just before the wheel launched.

And the suspension was in the wake of the death of Henry Surtees, who was killed by a loose wheel while competing in a Formula Two event at Brands Hatch.

I also seem to remember somebody saying on the Fox/Speed broadcast that this was not the first time that Alonzo's Renault had a problem like this.

Any wonder why French cars aren't sold here anymore . . . .

7. Pending loss of "Old" GM and Chrysler archival documents

TWS's take:

Thousands of V8s lost to "Cash for Clunkers" and now this.

This sacking of MoTown's history is like watching the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

These historic documents ought to be donated to an archive. If the Government owns them, then the Smithsonian seems a logical choice. Or maybe the LeMay or National Automobile Museum or AACA.

Some of these employees may actually be enthusiasts who will preserve the documents better than the factories would have, though.

MCCURDY AND THE OEMS TO BEG FOR MORE "CA$H FOR CLUNKER$" HANDOUTS

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Ronald Reagan once said "The closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program." And if Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers superlobbyist Dave McCurdy and the radical greens get their way, "Cash for Clunkers" will be the next immortal government giveaway.

According to the Automotive News, McCurdy and the dole-loving OEMS want to throw billons more borrowed bailout money after bad on welfare payments to new car buyers. The CARS Act's abject waste of $1,000,000,000.00 will only destroy 250,000 potential collector and spare parts vehicles. That's apparently not enough taxpayer-funded vandalism to suit the AAM's bailout-loving membership.

McCurdy chirped "I think it'll go very quickly, and Congress may have to revisit it in the fall . . . 250,000 vehicles isn't enough. We think there'll be additional phases of this . . . It'll probably evolve."

"Evolution" will undoubtedly mean putting even more V8s and at-risk milestone historic vehicles in the crosshairs of welfare/corporate greed and misguided, big-spending environmental policies.

As "Truth With Speedzzter" predicted, the initial CARS Act compromise was merely to get the "camel's nose into the tent."

Meanwhile, the Specialty Equipment Market Association's SEMA Action Network (SAN) is attempting to put its best spin on a lobbying disaster. The latest issues of "Driving Force" contains the following explanation of the AAM/greeniac/liberal Democrat/RINO rout:

SAN then focused its efforts on lessening the impact of the program on the hobbyist community.“SEMA and the SAN are disappointed that Congress ignored evidence that vehicle scrappage programs will not achieve claimed environmental benefits,” said Steve McDonald, SEMA’s Vice President of Government Affairs. “However, we are pleased that lawmakers agreed not to include the older cars and parts that help drive the passions of many in the automotive hobbyist community.”

Under the program, consumers who agree to scrap a trade-in car that gets 18 miles per gallon or less (15 mpg or less for heavy pick-ups and vans) will receive a voucher to buy a qualifying new car. The voucher will range from $3,500 to $4,500 based on the new car’s fuel efficiency. The program primarily targets SUVs and pickups since most passenger cars manufactured during the last 25 years get more than the 18 mpg combined city/highway requirement.

[As the EDMUNDS list posted below shows, however, this is simply not true. Virtually every V8 and RWD vehicle built after 1984 with a trade-in value of $4,500 or less is at risk]

The car buyer will receive a $3,500 voucher if they buy a new passenger car that was rated at 4 mpg higher than the older vehicle, or a new pickup truck/SUV that was at least 2 mpg higher than the old truck. They will receive a $4,500 voucher if the passenger car was at least 10 mpg higher and the truck/SUV was at least 5 mpg higher.

Lawmakers want the program to last one year but have only set aside $1 billion to fund car purchases made from July 1-Nov. 1, 2009. They will seek another $3 billion later this summer to fund the program into 2010.

“It took countless meetings with lawmakers and their staff in order to secure the 25-year exemption and recycling provisions,” said SEMA Director of Regulatory Affairs Stuart Gosswein. “While it proved impossible to kill the scrappage program, lawmakers were keenly aware of the SAN’s opposition to the program and wanted to remove any unintended consequences to the hobbyist community. Your voices were heard.”

Most certainly the next round of "Cash for Clunkers" welfare will go after a wider cross-section of historic and special interest vehicles. And paid shills like the AAM's Dave McCurdy will be leading the money-hungry Visigoths.

The apparently toothless SEMA lobby has its work cut out for it.

THE CA$H FOR CLUNKER$ "DEATH ROW LIST"

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Edmunds has produced a "Death Row" list of vehicles endangered by the welfare/bailout plan known as "Cash for Clunkers."

The list is packed with future collectibles, including several SVT Fords and scores of V8-powered RWD vehicles.

Even if the vehicles scrapped are too dilapidated to be currently collectible, many irreplaceable parts will be forever lost.

The list omits pre-1989 vehicles, because Edmunds determined that "almost all vehicles that are model year 1989 or earlier have a trade in value of less than $4,500..."

Shamefully, Ford Motor Company is making it "easy" for welfare seekers to vandalize our automotive heritage and destroy thousands of potential collector/parts vehicles. http://www.letfordrecycleyourride.com/ is FoMoCo's shameless shilling for laundered bailout cash (borrowed from the Chinese or printed up for the FED).

Ford has clearly taken a greedy, activist stand against collectors and grassroots motorsports in its support for the moronic CARS Act. Vintage Ford lovers should refrain from purchasing any new Ford, Mercury, or Lincoln products so long as FoMoCo is campaigning for its share of welfare money from the "Ca$h for Clunker$" boondoggle.

MAJORITY OF AMERICANS OPPOSE "CA$H FOR CLUNKER$" WELFARE PLAN

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Although a hoard of appliance motoring automotive vandals in the Congress and President Obama have championed the welfare-giveaway-bailout boondoggle popularly known as "Cash for Clunkers," a solid majority of Americans still oppose the plan.

Rassmussen reports that 54 percent of Americans disapprove of the new entitlement aimed at cleansing the streets of some seldom-driven vintage V8s through borrowing or printing money and handing it over to the automakers and their dealers in the form of welfare vouchers for purchasers of fuel efficient cars (mostly imports).

PROOF POSTIVE THAT DAVE MCCURDY IS AN IDIOT

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Cash for clunkers will benefit everyone from the consumer looking for the extra incentive to purchase a new car, to the communities who will receive additional tax revenue from the sales of new vehicles," said Dave McCurdy, CEO and president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which lobbied heavily for the bill.

R-I-G-H-T Dave.

It sure won't benefit the thousands of small businesses that who will have fewer customers because initially 250,000 V8s and V12s from the 1980s and 1990s (and probably 1,000,000+ V8s and V12s when the Democrats and RINOs appropriate some more money for this mess in fiscal year 2010) will be destroyed.

It sure won't benefit used car dealers and auto auctions, who will lose some of their opportunities for so-called "clunkers" vehicles to sell.

It sure won't benefit the thousands of hot rodders, kit car builders, restorers, and grassroots racers who will have to pay higher prices for the parts they need.

It sure won't benefit present and future generations of vintage vehicle collectors and restorers who will be deprived of hundreds of thousands of potential collector and donor vehicles.

It sure won't benefit the owners of true clunkers (i.e. rusted out FWD imports) who get no welfare vouchers to give to the pandering dealers and OEMs who are getting bailed out by ObamaCa$h for Clunker$.

It won't benefit the beginning drivers and the low-income families who cannot buy a new car but will be deprived of hundreds of thousands of still-functional used vehicles that will be wasted in the jaws of the crusher/shredder.

And it sure won't benefit the future generations who will have to pay interest to the Chinese and others for the money borrowed and wasted on this anti-free market welfare scheme.

Stupid quotes such as the one above are proof positive that Dave McCurdy is an idiot.

SENATE EFFORT TO CRUSH WELFARE "CA$H FOR CLUNKER$" FAILS

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Reuters and the Drudge Report are reporting that Senator Judd Gregg's valiant attempt to strip out of the pending $106 billion war funding bill a $1,000,000,000.00 version of the bailout-welfare boondoggle known as "Cash for Clunkers" has failed 60-36.

"Truth With Speedzzter" will publish the list of the SIXTY welfare-pimp senators who voted against the interests of the automotive hobbies and grassroots motorsports as soon as this information is verified.

Initial, unverified information suggests that this was mostly a party-line vote with a few RINO defectors. If so, the Democratic party has clearly gone on record in opposition to free markets, automobile collecting, vintage vehicle preservation, grassroots motorsports, and the thousands of small businesses who serve these avocations.

UPDATE 1:

The $1,000,000,000.00 version of Rep. Betty Sutton's (D-OH) CARS Act (a/k/a the ANTI-VINTAGE V8s ACT) was snuck into a House Senate Conference version of the massive House Report 111-151 - MAKING SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2009, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. Here's the text of the conference report:

TITLE XIII--CONSUMER ASSISTANCE TO RECYCLE AND SAVE ACT
The conference agreement includes a new title providing $1 billion for vouchers of $3,500 or $4,500 to be applied toward the purchase or lease of a new fuel efficient automobile or truck from July 1-November 1, 2009. To qualify for a voucher under this authority the vehicle turned in must be scrapped, and the purchased vehicle must achieve greater fuel efficiency than the vehicle to be turned in.

The enemies of free markets, grassroots motorsports, and the automotive hobbies who to let the Conference Report to go forward on a Motion to Waive All Applicable Points of Order Under Rule 44 on Conference Report on H.R. 2346, and stop Senator Gregg's attempt to remove the CARS ACT are:

YEAs ---60

Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO) {RINO ALERT!]
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Burris (D-IL)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Cochran (R-MS) [RINO ALERT!]
Collins (R-ME) [RINO ALERT!]
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Specter (D-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Voinovich (R-OH) [RINO ALERT!]
Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI) [RINO ALERT!]
Wyden (D-OR)

These SIXTY infamous Senators are welfare-bailout pimps of the highest order. They are enemies and vandals of our automotive heritage. They are in favor of spending A BILLION DOLLARS that we do not have to give a bailout to Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan and others, through welfare voucher for greedy and selfish owners of collectible and donor V8s from the 1980s and 1990s.

This is a sad day for vintage automobility in America.

And this little $1,000,000,000.00 vehicle scrappage program will be just the initial salvo in a lengthy war against vintage vehicles.