for those who care, I got my epa exemption so no more emmisons testing requirements
 

in IL.

the epa has a program that allows race cars and show cars out of the epa required emissions testing. this is not going to work for everyone but for those who want to run stand alone, and only drive to and from the track, it is a welcome opportunity to not need to figure out a way to register the car in another state or county that does not participate in epa testing.




here is a copy of the form

http://www.epa.state.il.us/air/vim/pdf/show-car.pdf


I sent in a list of mods and some random pictures of the car, one on track, a engine shot and interior shot to show the roll bar race seat, gauges harness

had to buy new plates but whatever, back on the road and legal

Nice!

TX has something similar... but the problem is that you must have driven less than 5000 miles in the past year (as proven by your inspection record). Since my car has never passed inspection in Texas before, I can't prove to them that it has driven less than 5000 miles in the past year. Of course they don't "believe" the mileage record from WV where it was last registered.

you can check your local laws, but if your state allows no emissions for classic/collector cars, you can go through hagerty and have your "racecar" insured through them through their motorsports program and wont have to worry about your emissions. youre allowed to drive the car up to 2k miles/year, and track miles don't count.

Never knew about that loophole. My parents live in Kankakee county so I register my 96+ cars out there (only a few counties in Illinois have emissions testing).

Some of the Supra guys had PO boxes out in Rockford that they registered their car to. :bowrofl:

Hargerty will not do hot rod/ show car /race car insurance on a Miata or any Mazda except the rx7. they only do cars on a approved list.

its not really a loop hole, they just exempt race cars and show cars from emissions. you fill out the work sheet and the epa lifts the hold on your registration for emissions so you can buy the plate sticker. you must reapply every 2 years.

what if you made your miata a spec miata and park it on the street in Chicago? you would get a ticket everyday. they gotta offer someway for people to to be in compliance... at least until everyone in the state is subject to the same standards.

In Tennessee I just passed the sniffer rest with a 3" exhaust with an All-Flow cat (tube that looks like a cat). I was close with 196ppm HC out of 220 allowed. However that is up only 7ppm compared to last year with a few year old FM high flow cat.

The only reason for the All-Flow cat was to pass the visual inspection. The visual is a joke though, the guy had the mirror just behind my front wheels and looking towards the motor and my "cat" is in the center of the car. Of course I should expect this when they looked for a cat in my MR2 turbo in between the wheels a few years ago. The dumbasses were more worried about what cars I could "run with".

In Seattle, we get to skip emission after 25 years so I'm almost there with the '90. In the meantime there are two loopholes I have heard used with some success... :giggle:

1) If you have lots of cars including some with the same make/model and others of the same year, you could take the compliant car for the OBDII plug in and take that emissions report in to get tags for the non compliant car. Most of the girls at the DMV counter just look at the box on the top of the form that says 'PASS' and might glance at the model year or make/model. I'm certain they don't look at the VIN really close. :jerkit: Not really a loophole but a trick for sure. ;)

2) We have to do emissions every 2 years but we can buy tabs 18 months at a time if we want. It costs 1.5x the 12 month fee but and goes by model and calendar year so an odd number model year needs emissions in this odd calendar year, etc. The loophole for example: If you have an odd year car due for tags and emissions in June 2013, get them done and go 18 months out which puts you to December 2014 where no emissions test is required. Get another 18 months to take you to June 2016 - again, no emissions test. Another 18 months passes and we are in December 2017 where emission are finally due again. 4.5 years is much better than every 2 years and get those December 2017 tags using method #1 above and you can go 9 years between 'tests'. :party:

Yes, the 'race car' and 'show car' exemption has been around for as long as I can remember.

The 'show car' one is more difficult to get because you have to prove 'show car' insurance too and only are allowed to drive it to/from shows (not daily)

I know several people who have done the 'race car' exemption and might end up doing it myself at some point but for now I didn't have to worry about it since my former Spec Miata's were 1990 and 1995 (exempt from emissions testing regardless!)