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Chevrolet won’t be able to sell the Camaro SS, 1LE, and ZL1 in California and Washington beginning next year due to the copper content of the brake pads.
California and Washington both enacted laws in 2010 saying that by 2021, brake pads had to have less than 5 percent copper content due to the toxicity of copper when it reaches waterways.
Those Camaros will return to the California and Washington markets in 2022, but it’s unclear why Chevy didn’t change the brakes prior to the 2021 model year.
Back in 2010, California and Washington enacted laws declaring that beginning in 2021, the brake pads sold in their respective states couldn’t have more than 5 percent copper by weight. By 2025, the brakes had to have less than 0.5 percent copper by weight. It’s because of this rule that starting on January 1, Chevrolet won’t be able to sell the 2021 Camaro SS, 1LE, and ZL1 in those states due to the copper content of the Brembo brakes, which exceeds 5 percent.

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Sales for those versions of the Camaro will resume in California and Washington for the 2022 model year once the brakes are replaced, a Chevrolet spokesperson told C/D. And, since the law goes into effect beginning on January 1 of next year, 2021 models that are currently in dealer inventory can still be sold in the new year.
The Chevy spokesperson wouldn’t clarify why the brakes weren’t replaced in advance for the 2021 model year, rather than the 2022 model year. The states gave automakers and other brake pad manufacturers ten years to find new technologies and replace the brake pads with high levels of copper content.
The copper from the brake pads, it was found, turns to dust and finds its way into waterways. Once it’s there, it becomes toxic to many water-dwelling creatures, including fish, plants, and amphibians. The copper is used in the brake pads because it’s able to quickly and effectively dissipate heat and allow for smooth braking.

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Although the rule was put in place in only two states, California and Washington, trade groups representing the auto industry and automakers signed an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2015 to phase out the use of copper in brake pads. The groups signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU)—and a non-binding agreement—saying that the auto industry would implement the “Copper-Free Brake Initiative.” At the time of the signing, General Motors was a member of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group which has since merged with others but signed the MOU.
A spokesperson for Brembo, the supplier of the brakes on the affected 2021 Camaros, told C/D in an email that although Brembo has copper-free brake pads, it does still make pads with copper and it’s up to the automakers to comply with regulations. “Brembo has accordingly been developing copper-free materials for its brake systems supplied to our customers worldwide who have been preparing for enactment of this legislation,” the spokesperson said.
General Motors doesn’t have any other vehicles that are affected by the legislation going into place, according to the Chevrolet spokesperson, and it’s unclear whether there are vehicles from manufacturers besides GM which can’t be sold beginning next year due to their brakes.
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Cadillac has shown the manual shift knob for the upcoming V-series Blackwing models.
The 2022 CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing will be higher-performance versions of these sports sedans.
Cadillac says these models will be on sale in the summer of 2021.
Cadillac confirmed months ago that the upcoming CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing would offer a six-speed manual transmission, and now we have the visual proof. A photo of the shift knob shows the new 3D-printed medallion on top with a shift pattern and checkered design. The manual transmission will come standard on both the CT4-V and CT5-V Blackwing models, with a ten-speed automatic available as an option.

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The CT4-V Blackwing is expected to be powered by a turbocharged V-6 engine, either the twin-turbo 3.6-liter unit from the previous ATS-V or the twin-turbo 3.0-liter engine currently in the standard CT5-V. The CT5-V Blackwing will be a different beast altogether, as we’re pretty sure it has a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 with around 650 horsepower. Combined with the standard stick-shift, it promises to be a riot. The only other high-performance luxury sedan to offer a manual in the U.S. is the 2021 BMW M3.
While we’ve been enticed by teasers like this and of the steering wheel and magnesium wheels, we look forward to hearing all the details about the 2022 Cadillac V-series Blackwing models soon. These performance models should debut in the spring of 2021 before going on sale in the summer.
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It’ll be Ken Block vs. Michigander Rob Dahm on December 14, battling for dominance with a pair of 1400-hp custom cars.
Block’s is the famous Hoonicorn, based on a 1965 Ford Mustang.
Dahm is bringing a quad-rotor Mazda RX-7 to this race, which will take place on social media next week.
If you haven’t been paying attention recently, the guys at Hoonigan have been running a series called Hoonicorn vs. the World where—you guessed it—they find potential high-power cars for Ken Block to race against that have a chance of bringing down his infamous 1400-hp Hoonicorn. So far only one competitor—an 1100-hp Audi RS3—has given a good fight.
Since the first 845-hp Hoonicorn debuted in Gymkhana 7, the custom-built all-wheel-drive 1965 Ford Mustang has become a household name in the automotive community. And how could it not be, what with its red, white, and blue funnels on the turbocharger compressor inlets proudly popping through the hood for the world to see?

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All about the 1400-HP Hoonicorn

The current Hoonicorn V2—made specifically for climbkhana—is powered by a Roush Yates 6.7-liter V-8 that is fed air by two massive Garrett turbos and fueled by methanol. The resulting combination is 1400 horsepower and 1250 pound-feet of torque, plenty sufficient when fed through its six-speed sequential gearbox to simultaneously light up all four tires at will. However, in a race where your opponent is nearly identical to you on paper, it’s hard to say how things will turn out. Best of luck, Mr. Block.
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Less known than Block and the Hoonicorn, but still wildly popular in the enthusiast community, is Rob Dahm. Dahm is a Michigan native who has amassed an impressive social media following behind all of his car escapades. Though it’s not his sole claim to fame, Dahm’s greatest project has probably brought him the most followers. In his quest to build the most powerful rotary engine in the world, Dahm has brought hundreds of thousands of viewers along for the experience, showing all facets of the process—including building his own parts—and lending an air of transparency that can be hard to find when it comes to high-end builds like these.
Dahm’s Mazda RX-7 is named Ahura, which is short for Ahura Mazda, a Persian mythological god who was said to have no equals. That’s a pretty fair name considering that the only thing remaining from the original car is the body. Everything underneath is all custom—just like the Hoonicorn: a tube-frame chassis, billet four-rotor engine, sequential gearbox, all-wheel drive, and a massive Garrett turbo.
Having a one-off car can be a pain at times though, If you regularly watch Dahm’s channel, you know all too well that building something like this is trial and error, and there are as many catastrophic failures as there are exciting successes. We just hope that Ahura holds together for a couple of solid shots at the champ.
If you want to find out who wins the race, we will be updating with video on December 14, when the post goes live on the Hoonigan and Rob Dahm pages. We aren’t sure who the winner will be, but one thing’s for certain: one car will emerge victorious, social media arguments will be had, and feelings will be hurt.
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Audi is one of many automakers offering advanced headlamp and lighting technology in cars.
Among the tech on the horion is pedestrian and obstacle detection, OLED taillamps, and the use of lighting to send traffic-safety information to other drivers.
Unfortunately, these advances aren’t available on cars in the U.S. because of our regulations.
You drive into a tunnel and your car’s headlights flicker to life. Just on the edge of the horizon you can see a set of taillights glowing back at you. You floor it, trying to catch up. It doesn’t matter. The faster you drive, the farther out of reach that red glow becomes. Worse, it seems this bleak, sunless tube stretches on forever—much like 2020.

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This dark tunnel is the U.S. regulatory environment when it comes to lighting, and the rest of the world is that car ahead of us in the tunnel: China, the EU, even Canada. At issue, as we pointed out earlier, is a 53-year-old regulation that mandates that all cars sold in the U.S. meet a law that says low- and high-beam headlights cannot operate simultaneously.
We’re bringing this up in the wake of yet more advanced lighting technology that vehicles including Audi’s e-tron (and some Q5 models), Cadillac’s XT6, the Lexus RX, and cars from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche have already activated elsewhere, but, because of our antiquated regulatory environment, not here.
And the situation is getting more dire, because what’s already been sold overseas and now in Canada is a merely fantastically stupendous technology called adaptive driving beam (ADB) headlights. This is the start, not the end, of what’s possible.
Smart-TV-Style Brightness
ADB works by shadowing your car’s lights from blinding the oncoming driver, while still illuminating the driver’s side to a normal high-beam’s throw. (In the EU, some luxury brands pair the LEDs with a laser high-beam that can stretch slightly more than a third of a mile.) But the point here isn’t reach—it’s accuracy. We recently checked out Audi’s technology and learned that its ADB digital-matrix LEDs work a lot more like the pixels of a smart TV than actual lights, individually funneling the LED’s photons to 1.3 million micromirrors, each of which can adjust up to 5000 times per second, constantly adapting to only brighten parts of the field of view while shading others.
So while U.S. law futzes around with how to regulate two individual headlights, Audi’s got 1,299,998 others.
And actually, there’s even more advanced tech on the horizon.

Audi

Connected Lights Will Be Safer
What’s coming dramatically clarifies what the rest of the world’s drivers will be getting—and why slow-walking on ADB puts American drivers dangerously far behind when it comes to safer lighting.
This past week Audi showcased futuristic tech that can display patterns on the road within the “light carpet” the LEDs illuminate. This includes visible markings, to augment where the car is positioned on the road, so that it’s easier for the driver to stay in their lane, which is especially useful in lousy weather.
Audi’s tech, and competing systems offered by other brands, also foreshortens the reach of the “low” beam on multilane highways, so as you bear down on a truck you’re about to overtake the LEDs shadow out that 18-wheeler and effectively wrap around it, stretching into the passing lane you’re about to occupy right as you signal. Audi’s system, like Lexus’s Bladescan, is also able to detect pedestrians with digital matrix LED lighting, and in the future will use the tech to display signage to drivers and likely include that information in HUD displays, too.

Digital matrix LED headlight in Audi e-tron Sportback.
Audi

Where this is getting really fancy is in creating visuals well beyond the front of the car.

Audi’s developed OLED taillamps that are starting to mirror what matrix LEDs allow. Again, think display, not lightbulbs. Audi was quick to explain that this will allow more creative design interpretation by the owner. (If you thought spinners were dumb, just wait.) But the bigger deal is using the display system for safety.

Audi

Imagine an Esperanto of signals that cars could deploy based on roadway conditions changing or an accident a mile ahead. Imagine being able to avoid any such collision because your e-tron detects worsening grip on a rainy interstate, and your rig’s OLEDs would switch to displaying a slippery-when-wet street sign signal on its hatch. This, in turn, could be detectable by a following car’s sensors.
Or, since Audi (also, Ford, Volvo, and almost every brand you can think of) is exploring car-to-X and 5G integration, such detection could also be transmitted from vehicle to vehicle, so the first car through the snow squall could act as sentry, sending both a transmission and a literal OLED billboard to other drivers.
Audi is already experimenting with the transmission part of this formula, with cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) pilot programs in Virginia in which construction crews wear vests with 5.9G transmitters that twig drivers of equipped Q8s that they’re about to enter a work zone. A similar program in Georgia equips school buses with transmitters that then tells equipped e-trons when they are approaching kids being dropped off or fetched. It’s an obvious extension of what’s possible to proliferate this through light technology as well. Since states are bound to continue to be cash strapped, enabling vehicles to essentially become “rolling infrastructure” leapfrogs the problem of embedding millions of transmitters.
This kind of thinking also becomes yet another necessary tool in the slog toward autonomy; vehicles that communicate with each other with visible signals as well as C-V2X will have to be part of the sauce.
Unfortunately the outlook for all of this is still murky. Audi’s above experiments are done not through NHTSA, but by working with temporary FCC-licensed partners, like Qualcomm. And you probably already know that laser headlights have come in limited and expensive fashion to American roads not through NHTSA, but through the FDA—which handles lasers because they can emit radiation.
NHTSA has been dancing around ways to regulate advancements in lighting since 2001, when Congress directed the DOT to study HID glare. Ever since, including in 2013 when Toyota asked for permission to begin experimenting with adaptive headlights, the agency hasn’t budged.
The Automotive Alliance cautioned both in 2018 and this past July that NHTSA’s rules for more advanced lighting were “overly stringent and not based on modern headlight systems.” That last bit is the key: NHTSA has been looking backward, at mitigating glare from headlight technology that was invented in the last century. But modern ADB systems were developed precisely to do just that: to shield oncoming drivers. And, in fact, they can do way more than we ever thought possible. They don’t just illuminate anymore. Now they also allow both drivers and pedestrians to see, and they augment what we see with better information. We just hope that these are advances that don’t happen all over the rest of the globe, while forever leaving American drivers in the dark.
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