California vs Cars: Why the Golden State had to turn on car culture

California was the champion of America’s car culture in the 20th century. Now, its strict regulations and 2035 EV mandate have turned it into a villain for enthusiasts. What happened?

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Whether you live here or not, the Golden State is a confounding place for car people. It’s the home of incredible automotive heritage—the birthplace of hot rodding and drag racing, the inspiration for countless amazing midcentury cars, the cradle of so many subcultures—not to mention the best driving roads in America.

But it’s also the source of hardline emissions regulations that now shape the path of whole country’s new car market and the aftermarket too. This has turned it into a comic book level bad guy for so many enthusiasts, a regulatory dystopia lobbing insane rules across the Rocky Mountains for everyone else to deal with.

Is that really what’s happening, though? Yes, it’s true that the California Air Resources Board has outsize influence on the country’s emissions targets, and thus the kinds of cars automakers produce to meet them. But when you look at the history, you can see how every decision the state has made that has frustrated people can be traced back to one goal: not destroying car enthusiasm as we know it, but simply controlling the smog in Los Angeles, the most populous metropolitan area in the most populous state in the country.

You can argue that that mandate has gotten out of hand, or that it doesn't matter if it still feels like the state is targeting enthusiasts specifically. But the distinction is important to understanding why California is what it is today: simultaneously a boogeyman and an epicenter for car culture, enjoyed and scorned by millions and millions of enthusiasts all at once.

0:00 California vs Cars
1:38 From Horses to Hot Rods
4:08 The Postwar Peak
7:11 LA's Smog Changed Everything
11:54 California Controls the Car Market
14:45 End of an Era?

Producer →   / joeyrassool  
Writer →   / travislangness  
Host →   / kylecheromcha  

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