Never thought it'd be just too darn hot to fly, then summer came.

[Fly Boomer]

  On 8/10/2023 at 12:15 PM, A64Pilot said:

Actually Modern ICE cars are phenomenally clean, I’m sure there is room for improvement but compared to even just a few years ago they pollute very little.

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I was at a Honda dealership a few years ago, and they had on display in the showroom one of the first Hondas ever imported.  Tiny little thing that looked like it had been kicked in the tail.  While I was there, they were shuffling some cars in the showroom.  They started a new car, and moved it over.  I didn't think much about it until they started the old Honda.  Total stink bomb -- the new car left no detectable emissions at all.

[A64Pilot]

  On 8/10/2023 at 6:58 PM, Fly Boomer said:

I was at a Honda dealership a few years ago, and they had on display in the showroom one of the first Hondas ever imported.  Tiny little thing that looked like it had been kicked in the tail.  While I was there, they were shuffling some cars in the showroom.  They started a new car, and moved it over.  I didn't think much about it until they started the old Honda.  Total stink bomb -- the new car left no detectable emissions at all.

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Good friend of mine who is gone now bought a whole bunch of Kruk crop dusters, I believe maybe 2 dozen of them, and in one of the transport containers was a trabant. That was I’m pretty sure the absolute worst polluting thing in existence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

Left a cloud of blue smoke wherever it went, two stroke and I think 25 to 1 mix.

Thousands of these things came into West Germany after the wall fell, they were two strokes and made out of some kind of plastic made I had heard from some kind of seeds, but the Germans couldn’t recycle this plastic, couldn’t “throw it away” I have no idea what became of the things.

Anyway remember as a kid it was very common for older cars to leave a cloud of oil smoke leaving a stop light, but today it seems even the junkers don’t burn oil. 

[Fly Boomer]

  On 8/10/2023 at 9:03 PM, A64Pilot said:

Good friend of mine who is gone now bought a whole bunch of Kruk crop dusters, I believe maybe 2 dozen of them, and in one of the transport containers was a trabant. That was I’m pretty sure the absolute worst polluting thing in existence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

Left a cloud of blue smoke wherever it went, two stroke and I think 25 to 1 mix.

Thousands of these things came into West Germany after the wall fell, they were two strokes and made out of some kind of plastic made I had heard from some kind of seeds, but the Germans couldn’t recycle this plastic.

Anyway remember as a kid it was very common for older cars to leave a cloud of oil smoke leaving a stop light, but today it seems even the junkers don’t burn oil. 

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I don't know much about the Trabant, but the joke was they only reach top speed when being towed.

Q:  Which Trabant is most valuable?

A:  The one with dual exhaust— cut off the top and you have a wheelbarrow.

[Pinecone]

  On 8/10/2023 at 9:03 PM, A64Pilot said:

Thousands of these things came into West Germany after the wall fell, they were two strokes and made out of some kind of plastic made I had heard from some kind of seeds, but the Germans couldn’t recycle this plastic, couldn’t “throw it away” I have no idea what became of the things.

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There were resin infused cardboard.  Like fiberglass, just instead of glass cloth, it was like pressed cardboard, like you used to get with new shirts.  

One of the issues with them is, like wind turbine blades, you can't get rid of them.  They don't degrade, they pollute tremedously if you try to burn them.

FYI, in Berlin, you can do a Trabant tour where each couple gets their own to drive and there is a lead car, and you tour the sights in a Trabbie.