06-03-07: Whether you buy into the Great Global Warming Swindle or not, the politicians America elected to Washington on the last go around certainly do. This combined with higher prices for gas that honestly aren’t going down again have brought a great deal of both legislative and market pressure on the American automakers to change. In the past couple of years and now into the future, they are going to be focusing on cars that pollute less and use less fuel as a matter of survival rather than will.
The Democrat controlled Congress, working hard to pay off their far left base is currently working on a sweeping new package of energy legislation that will dramatically increase the required Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards to numbers well beyond what we have today. The legislation in it’s current form will require that automakers increase the mile per gallon ratings of cars and trucks by a whopping 40% by 2020. This is the equivalent to a 9.0 earthquake hitting the city of Detroit.
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What is loomingly frightful is that this legislation is headed for a slam dunk in both houses of Congress and President Bush, not known as a friend of the American auto industry has indicated he is more than anxious to sign it. While it seems to fly in the face of conservative values to smack industry over the head with a baseball bat, the President is invested heavily in this new wave of laws in hopes of appeasing his political foes.
In addition to this, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the EPA has the right to regulate carbon emissions, a first. While it has not been decided if and when the EPA will begin putting a clamp on carbon, it is inevitable that they will. The only way to reduce carbon emissions is to reduce the amount of fuel being burned. It's simple math, there are no magic tricks for this one. Inevitably, reduction in carbon emissions means less horsepower, pure and simple.
Add these political and legislative pressures to the fact that the days of cheap gas are over and you have a sea change. With major developing countries like China and India now competing with the US for a finite supply of oil, the prices and supply are going to be hit like never before. This consistent $3.00 a gallon gasoline and higher price of fare is not only affecting what car buyers, enthusiasts or not, are planning on buying but what Detroit is planning on building in the future.
In the past few years we have been living in a muscle-car heyday. We have more power, responsible and reliable power than ever in the history of the automobile. It’s nothing to go out and find a 500+ hp Shelby Mustang, a 425hp Hemi Dodge or a 600hp Viper. They are a factory made, warranted and reliable choice right off the showroom. We have been more fortunate than we know.
In the coming years Detroit is going to be facing a new paradigm of making their cars 40% more efficient, mandated by law. They will be forced to spend more of their R&D in the areas of alternative fueled cars, small cars, hybrids, and even electrics. The money and time for muscle cars wont be there. Yes, this sounds like the same tripe we all heard in the 1970’s and again the 1980’s. But this time we have global pressures on oil supply that aren’t going away. We have a solid if not diabolic sell job on the psyche of the world citizen that we are all killing off the earth with our selfish mechanized actions. While this may be folly at it’s core, perception is reality and for the most part the sheep of the world are eating it up.
So, where does that leave us? Well to start with we suggest that if you want a factory built 500hp Shelby GT-500 or a big-block Hemi Chrysler, or even a 6.2 liter Camaro SS next year we suggest you buy it while you can. These cars are going to quietly disappear one day, just when we least expect it. Chrysler is already signaling that they may be dropping some if not all of their SRT-8 line of vehicles for 2008 model year. No more 425hp 6.1 liter Hemi Chargers? The reason, slow sales and of course their need to keep their CAFÉ up.
Ford has been chastised by the press, ourselves included for not ponying up the power lately with bigger more powerful engines on some of the special edition Mustangs. Where are the big V8 rear wheel drive sedans? Instead, they are farming out the souping up of regular Mustang GT’s to aftermarket tuners like Carroll Shelby himself. The new supercharged Harley Davidson F-150 pickup will have its supercharger installed at the dealer by way of Saleen. This may indeed be the wave of the future for the hardcore high performance cars.
While companies like Ford, GM and Chrysler have the CAFÉ standards to meet, once the car leaves the factory door the requirements are met. The car can then go out to any tuner and be massaged with all the superchargers, turbos and whatever else it takes to put the power to the people. Provided that tuner can meet smog regulations which they are doing fine at by the way, then the car can be sold though the dealer just like Saleen, Roush, Shelby and Steeda cars are being done today.
The point is that the coming regulations aren’t likely to kill the high performance muscle car. They are likely however to kill the factory high performance muscle car. Sad as that might seem on the surface, the changes ahead might mean big time business for our stable of aforementioned tuners who have frankly been hit with a shovel in the past few years since the factory has gotten into the game.
We can only hope that someone is able to fill the void when Detroit no longer has the moral and fiscal fortitude to crank out mega-liter 500+ horsepower machines from their plants. In the meantime, go get them while you can and take good care of them because history is about to repeat itself.
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