The EPA's interest in driveability stems from evidence that adjustments of some vehicle engine settings to values other than those recommended by the manufacturer can improve driveability during cold start and warmup driving but often exhaust emissions and/or fuel economy suffer as a result. Because of this, EPA may eventually consider issuing driveability guidelines or standards. Such regulations must be based on quantitative test methods but current industry test procedures are primarily subjective. Consequently EPA awarded a contract to determine whether an objective procedure could be developed for assessing vehicle cold start and warmup driveability. Nearly 200 driveability tests were conducted with this car on chassis dynamometers using various driving cycles and ambient test temperatures. Throughout each test the instrument output signals and the trained raters' evaluations of performance were computer recorded. A series of computer programs were developed to identify and measure the severity of several driveability problems.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 40). "EPA-460/3-81-009." "April, 1981." "Contract No. 68-03-2875"--T.p. "EPA Project Officer: J. P. Whitehead"--T.p.