that was not meant to be an argument
Neither was my reply. Srsly: it's a cat. Rolling a watermelon. Out of a lake. Y'don't really think I was seriously trying to start a pissing match, do ya?
Back to the topic at hand: There really isn't anything worth complaining about here. The limits in place in Arizona for 1967-'71 cars with more than 4 cylinders are 450 ppm HC and 5% CO at idle, 450 ppm HC and 3.75% CO at loaded cruise. Those are lax enough standards to drive just about anything through, as long as it's got an engine in reasonably decent shape and it's tuned up reasonably well.
When I lived in Denver, my 1965 Valiant with 225/auto and high miles had zero difficulty passing the emission test. Limits at that time for a 1965 model were 550 ppm HC and 5% CO; the Valiant blew 168 ppm HC and 1.2% CO, and that was at high altitude which tends to worsen emissions from carbureted cars. No tricks, no magic mouse milk poured in the gas tank, no misadjusting the idle mixture so the engine would run extra-lean, no hours of time spent doing a tune-up right before the test...just plain old ordinary keeping it in reasonably good tune.
Whether or not the car was originally designed to comply with Federal emission standards is totally irrelevant; no matter if we're talking about a 5-year-old or a 50-year-old car, state emission standards have little or nothing to do with the Federal standards every make-model-year-engine-transmission vehicle package has to meet in order to be legal for first sale. Some states require an emissions test from vehicles regardless of year to keep the gross polluters off the road til they're fixed. I don't see anything wrong with that, any more than I would object to a vehicle being "grounded" for broken lights, worn-out brakes, or bald tires via a periodic safety inspection. We all gotta breathe what comes out of every vehicle's tailpipe, and while the population of old cars is so tiny that immediately deleting them all from the roads would have no measurable effect on air quality, all it takes is
one stinker or smoker to get a whole bunch of well-meaning but ignorant people behind laws restricting the use of old cars.
So let's review --
WITH a basic emission test that will flunk only a genuinely faulty vehicle, you get incentive to repair and tune up your car, thus saving you a lot of gas money, and you prevent public opinion from turning against your choice of automobile. Win-win.
WITHOUT such a test, you go carelessly about your miles and days pouring gas money out the tailpipe and into the noses of a general public who can and will legislate against your ability to drive your old car. Lose-lose.
H'mm.
Tough decision!