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Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33034, 29 September 1972, Page 13

much as 20 per cent on cars that meet damage-resistance standards. Emission - control rules have forced a mindboggling series of technical changes in engines, carburettors, ignition systems and exhaust manifolds. All this has cost plenty in terms of performance. The new engines bum a lot more fuel, tend to “run on” long after the ignition is switched off, idle so fast that a driver must ride the brakes to stay under 5 m.p.h., and sometimes stall unexpectedly even at normal road speed, Jones writes. The industry hopes for at least some " improvement from the new gas-recircu-lating system, which runs exhaust gases through the carburettor to reduce formation of nitrogen oxides but also has a temperature sensor that shuts off recir-

That is a far cry from what used to be the Detroit tone, but it is representative. “I think there’s got to be government involvement on some issues,” says the Ford president, L. lacocca, and American Motors chairman, R. Chapin, concludes: “We’ll learn to live with it.” To be sure, there persist some traces of the feistiness of yore. After a touch of the grape, one top hand exploded a few weeks ago: “One of these days I’m going down there to Washington and explain some facts of life to those sons of bitches. I’ll resign from the company first, so as not to embarrass them, but I’m going to tell them.” But he’ll do neither, and he has since recovered. The outburst was merely a remembrance of emotions spent, Jones writes. —Newsweek Feature Service.