What happened to gasoline in the mid 1970s?

I'll quibble that when an engine is producing near its maximum torque and power (for any given rpm) the exhaust HCs are high. So in those instances more HC in the exhaust occurs when the engine is more mechanically efficient, even though its chemically less so.

Yeah, that is interesting. I've always thought that NOx/HC/CO graph is neat. It just shows that there isn't one sweet spot for minimizing all pollutants.