This is the Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scatt a little bit.

I’ve come to believe that technology is not high or low but, just, technology. And that includes artificial intelligence that’s becoming more important in things like Formula One and NASCAR.

There was a time more than fifteen years ago when Penske Racing was testing paints for their ability to pierce the wind at speed. There were even rows and rows of engineers buried in laptops at NASCAR preseason testing checking all sorts of things from paint to body wraps and that was just for a car’s aerodynamics.

Formula One is testing theories on nearly every square inch of the race car from materials to shapes of everything in the air stream.

F1 WindtunnelI was reading a book last month that talked about a villain who was building factories to reconfigure spider silk. I laughed until I looked up the idea and found spider silk is the next big thing.

It starts out in a liquid form called dope. But in fractions of a second the slurry of proteins folds and interlaces into a structure that’s stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. I suppose you Spiderman fans know all this but I’ve never seen a Spiderman movie so I’m a newbie in all that.

So, if your answers to all racing questions is are truck arms and carburetors, you don’t even fit in the grandstands anymore.

Peace.