CARB and the Prelude

One of the nicest things about having such a great all-round sports coupe like the 5th Gen Prelude is that you don't really need to upgrade much to get the kind of performance that will keep a smile on your face. But the truth is, if you truly appreciate performance, in any car, you are going to be compelled, as if commanded by the gods themselves, to do it anyway. The problem with doing this in California is the devil will make this difficult if not impossible to do. OK, CARB, the California Air Resources Board is not the devil, I know many good people who work there, and they clearly have saved California's ass if you think about it, and if you remember what the pollution problem was like back in the early 1970's when there weren't nearly as many cars on the road. Still, it is an obstacle for performance enthusiasts, especially when it comes to custom parts, such as headers, or even mods that just increase fuel mileage and reduce emissions, because all this equipment needs to have an EO (executive order) issued by CARB. That is costly.

A while back I spent some time on the CARD web site, trying to learn more about how this affects my plans for the car (supercharger) and to see what exactly was CARD-legal for the prelude. The write-ups listed below summarize my findings.