Should I do a Cat delete on '75 Duster

Tanker said

In spite of California’s recent moves to the left the car culture that the state is well known for, especially in Souther California, continues to have a fair amount of influence in certain policy decisions and the aging out of smog testing requirements for cars beyond a certain age(1975 and older at this point) is one of the concessions they won. But truthfully, even in California with its unsalted winter roads the percentage of cars on the road from 75 and earlier is pretty small. I don’t think John has anything to worry about going forward.

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Exactly. These cars make up less than 1% of the cars on the road here (and everywhere else for that matter). There are very few people that use them as daily drivers like I do, and fewer and fewer every year. When I started driving my '72 Challenger daily about 12 years ago there were several other Mopars I would see frequently on the road, even during the winter months. If they weren't daily's they were close. Nowadays pretty much the only time I see other Mopars is during the summer, and typically only on the weekend when the local shows are going. I don't think I've seen another one during "commute time" for a couple years now. I'm not saying there aren't any at all, but probably not many.

SEMA and other organizations have a large lobby, and do a great job of making sure little of the new legislation applies to classics and hobby cars. With the tiny percent of the total they make up its not a difficult argument to make, and the trouble and backlash involved with including them isn't worth the tiny result. As I said, the most recent push has actually been to raise the number of exempted vehicles, there are a lot of the "truck guys" that would like to see up to 1981 included, as many of the truck bodystyles from the early to mid seventies carried through until then.