Please bear with me whilst I do a characteristic waffle,before arriving at the nitty gritty and the real purpose of this post
Starting in reverse order with cars and their power plants, some induce a feeling of pleasure whilst others are nonedescript,functional and bland. PreTurbo era, naturally aspirated cars that I have some knowledge of, include a Honda Accord Type R with a 2.2 litre VTEC, BMW M3 3.2litre, Porsche Boxster 3.4 litre S, all of these have wonderful engines with a delicious exhaust note in my opinion, but how does one quantify a subjective opinion into facts.
We are now in the Turbo era, where naturally aspirated petrol or diesel cars are as rare as hens teeth. From their introduction into F1 and rally cars in the early 80's usually fairly unreliable, and 'peaky' ,turbocharging has improved in leaps and bounds regarding reliability,driveability and efficiency so much so that they are the norm in even the most mundane of vehicle. Just to highlight the staggering evolution, a 4 cylinder 2.0 litre Ford Fiesta of mid 2000's was producing 150 bhp., whereas the latest offering is a 3 cylinder 1.5 litre producing 200 bhp. and is actually more economical. For me though the turbocharger has dulled the sensory pleasure of hearing an engine being 'wrung-out' or extended at 'full chat'.
Continuing my evolutionary story, I must include electric/hydrogen vehicles of which I know little, these are supposedly the future of motoring, speed, zero emissions are among the virtues. High purchase costs even after government assistance, incomplete and patchy charging infrastructure has meant that current sales are modest. My initial impression of these vehicles is that pleasure is even further eroded from the naturally aspirated era, but that is maybe an 'old fogie' with luddite tendencies speaking. The UK Government recently announced that by 2040 all new cars must not include petrol or diesel as their powerplants.........
Now just imagine that was not 2040 but in 6 weeks time, and all existing vehicles must be removed from the road . This is in effect what the latest FDA announcement on #ecigs was implying in a worst case scenario, others have covered this folly in far greater depth than I wish to dwell upon here. It is my contention that Gottleib in cahoots with the likes of the Truth Initiative and Tobacco Free Kids hatched a devious plan probably 12 months ago to knobble ecigs via the commercial success of JUUL. As we know he is proclaiming an epidemic, whilst producing no data, having to act upon public outrage that he and the other organisations have fuelled via a gullible media.This is truly depressing to examine from afar, I can only imagine the despair of US Vapers and the Vape Industry at this ongoing uncertainty. This is where my Vultures could be applied to from the title, but no it's in the next brief paragraph
Very Low Nicotine Containing Content (VLNCC) cigarettes was the other hobbyhorse that FDA head Gottleib was promoting very soon after taking up his post, in conjunction with attempting to move smokers to #ecigs.
I have written about this in a previous blog and I shall now reveal VLCOS (Very Little Chance of Success) is my acronym that for some reason was bastardised into Vultures.
