Water Powered Race Cars?

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

For years I’ve argued that motor racing began suffering when factory budgets strayed from research and development to marketing. Engineers weren’t trying to learn things for your driveway. Instead, pencil pushers were trying to learn things to put in your kitchen or closet.

Well, the people who run global sports car racing are back in the R&D business. We’ve already seen hybrid and electric race cars. Now they’re testing hydrogen powered race cars with the plan to put them in world sports car racing by 2020.

The technology is brilliant. The engineers are looking at breaking down water into oxygen and hydrogen and converting the hydrogen to fuel. Automakers evidently like the technology to put in your driveway in the near future.

If the automakers like it, they’ll be behind it with leaps in R&D money just like they’ve been behind the battery improvements for Formula E.

You wonder why sponsors and automakers are looking for escape hatches in their NASCAR commitments. The technology there is barely beyond carburetors.

Peace.