[JoeC]

Wangers talks about his LS-W (W for Wangers) program in his book. He bought 25 LS-6 crate engines from Chevy and converted them to low compression hyd. lifter street engines. They did some R&D and used a 1969 SS Chevelle as a test car running low 12s at 113 mph. Some were sold as crate engines to replace a customer's worn out high compression big block and some went into new cars. It wasn't legal for a dealer to disconnect air pollution devices on a new car so Jim would have the owner drive the car around the block and bring it in as a new customer in the service garage. He had them sign an affidavit saying the car was for off road use and they also had to pick up their new big block car on a trailer. A young couple bought a 1973 350 Nova and ordered the LS-W 454 conversion using Jim's rules of signing the affidavit and picking up the car on a trailer. The couple was divorced 6 months later and the wife got the car. After she went to register the car it failed her states inspection and she went to a lawyer. Her lawyer told Jim to buy back the car or put the 350 back in with all the pollution control equipment. Jim said no and they reported him to the EPA. They used the Super Stock magazine article and the fact that the cars had radios and other options that proved to the EPA they were not off road only vehicles. The EPA made a big deal out of it in the press and fined Wangers Chevy $500,000.00 and told him to fix the woman's 73 Nova. Wangers later settled with the EPA for $500.00 and fixing the car but also agreed to stop doing engine conversions. The EPA did something similar to Motion Performance in 1974. I guess President Nixon didn't want anyone breaking the law.