RACE CARS
Race Cars
by
Clyde
H. Spencer
Copyright
1999
Imagine
that our legislators were to decide that sports cars are responsible for an
unacceptable number of accidents and deaths on our roads.
While this simplistic view overlooks the role of the drivers of the cars,
let’s focus on the issue as our wise legislators would undoubtedly deal with
it. First, there is no single
feature that uniquely distinguishes sports cars from other cars, except
sometimes a name that has become synonymous with the term ‘sports car’ in
the public’s mind – Corvette and Ferrari are a couple that might immediately
come to mind.
So,
in the name of protecting the public, the legislature crafts a bill to ban the
manufacture and sale of ‘sports cars.’
Since they can’t agree on a generic definition that doesn’t also ban
cars that most don’t think are really sports cars, they come up with an
ingenious solution. They get a
catalog of cars and go through it and look for cars that appear as though they
might be ‘sports cars.’ They
write down the name of the car and move on until they have gone through the
whole catalog. They then write a bill that specifically names all the cars
they thought looked dangerous, and legislatively define them as “Race Cars”
that are unsuitable for transportation. People
who currently own them will be allowed to keep them, so the state doesn’t have
to spend money to reimburse the owners for “taking of property.”
However, they restrict all owners to the use of their vehicles only on
private property, with the property owner’s permission, and prohibit them from
selling, loaning, or giving their so-called Race Cars to anyone.
Owners are required to file special paper work with the Dept. of Justice
(in violation of their 5th Amendment protection) notifying the state
that they posses such a vehicle, and if they do not comply within a mandated
time period, they are subject to a fine, confiscation of their vehicle without
compensation, and a criminal record.
Not
surprisingly, manufacturers get around the inane law by changing the name of
their cars with new model features. This
is seen by some as an attempt to circumvent the law.
Others see it as predictable Capitalism at work.
After
several court cases where it is demonstrated that the law was poorly crafted in
several aspects and thereby unconstitutional, politicians, who want a cause to
be remembered by to insure reelection, vow to “close the loopholes” in the
existing law. This time, the safety
zealots craft a generic law that additionally defines a ‘Race Car’ as any
automobile with a 250 HP engine or larger, a removable top, and any one of
several additional features as follows: 1)
4-speed manual transmission; 2)
alloy wheels; 3) pin-striping; or
4) a vinyl ‘bra’ protecting the front of the car.
Now,
besides having violated the spirit of the original law by potentially banning
some cars that were purposely excluded the first time, what the law really
accomplishes is to become a defacto
ban on the cosmetic features and minor functional features that are not
essential to the operation or performance of the car.
One need only go to the inconvenience and slight expense of removing the
offending item(s) and one can avoid the onus of owning a ‘Race Car’ and all
the attendant legal restrictions.
Now, if the above
seems a little silly, consider this: This
is exactly what the California legislature has done recently with respect to
so-called Assault Weapons. This is
the law that governor Davis signed with so much fanfare as protecting the public
and fulfilling his campaign promise. It
is clear that we don’t send our best and brightest to Sacramento – just the
politically ambitious!
Originally
published in the Union Democrat, Sonora, California, January 2000 as a Letter to
the Editor.
