Jay Leno’s star power wasn’t enough to persuade a California legislative committee to pass a measure to allow owners of classic cars like him to be exempted from the state’s rigorous smog-check requirements.
The Assembly Appropriations Committee on Friday blocked Bakersfield Republican Sen. Shannon Grove’s Senate Bill 712 from advancing for a full vote. Leno had testified in support of the measure in Sacramento earlier this year.
Most of them? These are not custom hot rods, they’re restored stock cars. A careful and attentive restorer is going to try to match every detail to the day the car first rolled off the production line. This means keeping (and rebuilding) the original engine, not installing a modern emission-controlled engine in its place.