Thanks VW! EPA Says It Is Targeting Companies That Offer Emissions Defeat Devices Not Race Cars

Alarm bells rang in the auto enthusiast community last week after a trade group warned that the EPA was threatening to ban the type of modified street cars that generations of amateur racers have taken to the track.

Relax, the EPA said. There's no new ban being proposed. Fact is such modifications have always been banned under the Clean Air Act.

So what is going on?

Call it a muddled exchange that nonetheless sheds light on one of the EPA's enforcement priorities in the context of Volkswagen's diesel transgressions. In short, the EPA's concern is not about the emissions of race cars but about keeping all road-going cars free of modifications that would neuter their emissions controls.