unleaded fuel and the price of gas

["Paul Irvine" <pi@xxxxxxx>]

First of all my qualifications. I live in California therefore I have many
years of experience with unleaded fuel. Now that the conversion is happening
in other countries I see the same type of hysteria and misinformation
propagating there as it did here in the early 80's.

The stories of old rubber fuel lines cracking and leaking, of valve seats
and guides wearing out - they're all true. The fact is that old rubber fuel
lines do eventually crack and leak and all valve guides and seats eventually
wear out. But if your government has just recently mandated the use of
unleaded fuel then just about every occurrence of the above mentioned
maladies will thereafter be blamed on the new fuel.

Now the one about people getting headaches at the pump. I can't really see
how anyone can accept that removing lead from the fuel will cause you to get
a headache from the fumes anymore than you normally would.

If California can be considered a testbed then I would have to conclude that
none of you Alfa owners out there need to be concerned about the conversion
to unleaded fuel. Now MTBE or methanol - that's a different story. Don't
even get me started on that subject!

As to the suggestion that gas ought to be $4 a gallon: Not to offend anyone
but what a ludicrous idea. Who is to reap the benefits of this sudden
windfall? The oil companies? Yea, I kind of feel bad for them having such a
hard time taking our shorts as it is. How about the government? Now there's
an efficient use of capital. Plus, them getting 50% of my income already
doesn't seem quite enough. I'd really like to give more.

Finally - SUV bashing. Regardless of how you feel about these behemoths the
idea that the solution is through some sort of new restriction or regulation
imposed on all of us - I don't think so. The only solution is to look sooo
damn cool cruising in your Alfa that the next generation will dump SUV's
like a pair of paisley bell bottoms.

Paul Irvine  - Antioch CA
72 Spider - 79 Sprint Veloce - 82 GTV6
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Project Alfa - http://www.crl.com/~pi/project
E-Mail - mailto:pi@domain.elided

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