Re: '74 Regs

[jack@domain.elided (Jack Hagerty)]

>From: djbender@domain.elided

     >My '74 GTV has the old-style (non-impact) bumpers and, as far as I 
     >know, the same smog equipment as pre-'74 cars.  The '74 Spyder has 
     >bumpers upgraded from the '73's.  Also of course the '75's (Spyder and 
     >Alfetta) has "improved" bumpers and smog equipment.
     
     >All other cars I know of had their "improvements" in '74.  And, of 
     >course from a current-day collector's point of view, '74 is the year 
     >to stay away from.
     
     >So:  How did Alfa manage to keep the pre-'74 bumpers on the '74 GTV?   
     >And why did smog equipment have to improve in '75 but not '74? 
     
The bumper laws went into affect in 1973, actually. Contrary to popular
opinion, these were not "no damage" laws (i.e. the car had to take a 
5 mph bunt in the front or rear without damage) but "leave the safety
eqipment operating" laws (i.e. turn signals, brake lights, horn, etc. 
still had to work even if the sheetmetal was all bent up). The '74 GTV,
and also the '73, bumpers met this requirement by mounting the bumper bar 
on sacrificial plastic mounts.  In a low speed collision, the plastic 
would deform and shatter, but the bumper would still be attached and all 
of the lights still worked.

As to emissions, the original SPICA setup was cleaner than it had to be 
when first introduced. They were basically meeting 1974 emission levels
in 1972 so had two years of improvements by '74. It managed to survive 
w/o a catalyst until that year (most cars started in '73) but they finally
had to bite the bullet and go with cats and air pumps in '75. California 
was even tougher so there were not '75 California cars (they just continued 
selling  left over '74 models. I know because that's when I bought mine :-)  

Alfa kept building '74 models for the US market right up to the end of 
December that year. Legally, any car built in calendar year '74 is still 
a '74 even though most companies start up their next-model-year production 
lines in July or so.

- - Jack

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| Jack Hagerty                |                                             |
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