Flooring the accelerator of Donny Krieger’s ’69 SS Chevelle was one of the great thrills of my life.

I was only 15 when I slammed the Chevelle’s four-speed Hurst shifter into second and stomped on the gas. Its monster 396 V-8 let out a nasty growl as the nose of the car jumped up and the tires screeched.

Big V-8s are in the news again.

The Trump administration recently eliminated large financial penalties on automakers for failure to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.

Passed in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo, CAFE standards were designed to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil by demanding better fuel economy.

But the unintended consequences of government meddling increased fuel consumption.

You see, cars had to hit tough miles-per-gallon targets, but light

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