Performance Plus Tire

If you plan to buy custom tires you may also think about recycling your old tires. Here you’ll find a great selection of custom tires and discount tires. If you keep your tires properly inflated, you can improve your mileage and save on gas at the same time.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be on Monday June 30th at 6:30 PM at Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon, (804) 272-0391 10456 Midlothian Turnpike, Richmond, VA 23235. We will eat in their banquet room before the meeting. The tip will be added to the check. If you need driving directions they are at this link: Driving Directions.

Car Hobbyist News

Chesterfield County just said no to a photo red program. The estimated cost to start up the program was estimated at $6.6 million. This was just too expensive for a county that is going to be looking for more income over the next few years. In fact it is surprising that the police administration would have even asked for this program. There have been several articles in both the Times Dispatch and local weekly newspapers about the low pay and high turnover rate for the county police. Many people are asking for pay raises for the police to help retain them. The chief pared down his request to $343,000 for photo red for two intersections but even that was killed.

The City of Richmond is still looking at photo red. A city spokesperson stated recently that the city believed that the photo red program would fund itself. I’m not sure why the companies the sell and maintain the systems need any start up money at all. There are intersections in DC and Maryland that have raised millions in fines. Virginia’s law does have some restrictions that would make the program less attractive than those in other states.

You may have heard about Investor's Business Daily – a website of “daily stock market and business news, quotes, mutual fund performance, and market analysis”. It has run three editorials about crushing old cars. In the 90’s the call to crush cars was to stop those “10% of vehicles that produce over half of the pollution”. (Although I have never seen any real proof of that statement) Today the call is to lower the price of gasoline. That’s right – if we just get rid of all those pre-1978 vehicles the rest of them will burn less gasoline and therefore there will be less demand and therefore the price will fall like a rock tossed off a cliff.

I don’t know how anyone can come up with such nonsense. I seldom see anything older than early 90’s vehicles on the roads. The pre-78 vehicles are driven very few miles. The articles ignore big SUV’s that get lower gas mileage than many older vehicles. And as we all know – if gasoline prices go up less will be bought and if gasoline prices suddenly dropped more would be bought. The articles ignore certain facts. The US dollar is dropping and lots of people in India, China and other developing countries have driven up demand for oil and gasoline. These two things are major reasons why the price of gasoline has increased. It also ignores our leadership in Washington, which hasn’t really done anything to lower the price of gasoline – in fact what Congress has done has actually meant higher prices.

Speaking of Congress – the members recently passed new CAFE standards for cars and light trucks. By 2015 cars will have to get 35.7 average mpg and light trucks 28.6 mpg. Members of Congress say the automakers can do this with today’s technology. I assume this means smaller and lighter vehicles.

Next month the General Assembly is scheduled for a special transportation session. The members couldn’t get everything done in the “long” session this winter so now they are going to meet to solve our transportation needs. It will be interesting. The only real solution is to increase the gas tax and we know members are going to try and avoid doing that with the constantly increasing price of gasoline. Maybe we’ll see some unique solutions like we did last year with the bad driver remedial fees and perhaps something even more bizarre. When politicians try to solve a tough problem it is always entertaining.

Richmond Times Dispatch Gremlin Article

If you haven't seen this you need to read it. The paper decided to do an article on AMC Gremlin's because the I-64 shooters were driving a Gremlin. The T-D can't print articles on charity car shows but can go after an old Gremlin that is used in a crime. Read the article and the comments on poor research here: Gremlin Article.

Weather Channel Founder on Global Warming

Here's part of what Weather Channel Founder John Coleman had to say about global warming: "It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus."

You can read it all at this link.

Antique Plate Info Flyer Online

The council delegates have approved the flyer with information on antique plates and a link to it is online here: flyer opens to a new window. Council members and antique owners may print the flyer for their own reference or distribute it to those who own or are considering registering a vehicle as an antique. It will remain on the site for an undetermined time. Council delegates will review the effectiveness of the flyer at a later date.

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