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MG-ness, electric cars, timing

To: mgs@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: MG-ness, electric cars, timing
From: William Eastman <william.eastman@medtronic.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 15:49:58 -0600
Ever since I have gone onto the digest, I feel that I have lost the
timeliness of my posts.  I read something and respond only to find out that
I a parroting the responses of many members of the live membership.  This
doesn't bother me, it only reaffirms the good taste of other members of
this list by showing that many think like I do.  I hope it does not bother
any of you.  I know that this delay can make some threads ebb and flow like
the tide but I guess that is just the nature of the beast (mixed
metaphor?).

MG's are unique in many ways but probably this uniqueness is most shown by
the feeling of deep tradition the owners share.  I have read a few MG books
and every design change was met with cries of "you've ruined it" from the
faithful.  F OHV engine, shorter 15" solid wheels, a fake radiator cap, an
envelope body, the unibody, roll up windows; all of these "advances" were
hailed as the end of the great MG tradition.

Yet every new model outsold the one that it replaced.  In other cars,
advances are met with cries of joy and calls of "its about time."  Why is
the MG differant?  I don't know but I guess its just part of the charm.  I
am not complaining, mind you.  I am just making an observation.

Concerning Paul's (I believe) post on electric cars taking over the world. 
The golden rule (they who have the gold make the rules) may apply here.  I
don't believe that the government will legislate away an industry that is
an important contributor to the U.S. economy.  Just look how hard it is to
regulate tobacco because some senators are running on tobacco money. 
Conservatives would never go for this.
  
Also, removing the inexpensive older cars would adversely impact the less
fortunate.  Liberals would never go for that.

Even the adaption of automobiles was not completed until after WWII.  This
was 40 years after the first "common folk" car- tha model T.  It took that
long to develop the supporting infrastructure such as roads, refineries,
etc.  It took that long even though progress was pushed by two world wars.

I am just waiting until one of these battery wonders has a head-on on the
freeway and splashes Hydrochloric acid all over everyone.  That will get
some people talking.

On the flip side, the government does not have a good track record when it
legislates technology.  The airbag fiasco is the latest showing of that. 
An earlier example is the emergency location transmitter (ELT) on small
planes.  The government made these devices mandatory and also legistated
that they use, if I remember correctly, lithium iodide batteries.  The ELT
was usually put in the tail of the plane since it was thought that it would
be most likely to survive their.  Turns out that many batteries were not
well sealed and lithium iodide is very unstable when exposed to moisture. 
Several plane went down after the batteries exploded and blew the tail off
the plane. 

The government has been more succesful at setting performance targets and
letting the automakers figure out how to get there.  Although we all hate
rules, the emission, safety, and efficiency legislation have resulted in
much better cars.

If they do come after older cars, I would expect that they would require a
change to a more available, less dirty fuel such as LPG or CNG.  Athough
this would not be desirable, I do not think such a change would ruin LBC's

Besides, if I worry too much about what will happen in the future, I won't
have any time to enjoy today.

Regards
Bill Eastman
61 MGA which smoke but not as much as some people and whose emissions smell
much better than mine after a good mexican meal.

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