Zapped
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There are lots of books out there about F1 most of which are biographies or technical, or history, but there are very few novels. I have read several over the past few years but none have really grabbed me, until now. Over Christmas I read a new e-book called ZAPPED. It is by a former director of Brands Hatch, whose wife Desire raced F1 cars in the British F1 back in the late 70’s. His name is Alan Wilson and he also wrote her biography a few years ago. The new book is very interesting because it is not only a novel, but it suggests that modern technology could allow someone to interfere with the electronics of cars on the track, and so prevent them from winning races. The arguments are pretty persuasive and if they are true it would be pretty difficult to control cheating in racing.
Very scary.
In other respects the book is very interesting as it covers part of a GP season with all the right tracks and some interesting perspectives on what happens in the GP paddock. I certainly enjoyed it and suggest that anyone interested in F1 racing would find it illuminating, especially his descriptions of some of the characters in the paddock!Oops, embarrassing. This post was put up by my friend David who is staying with us. He used my computer so it shows that I sent my own blog for the book! Apologies.
Anyway, I would like to explain how I came about my premise for Zapping cars on the track. Back in 1992 I was looking at a site on which to build a race track (never happened) which was the home of the Grumman Aircraft factory where they built the Tomcat fighters. I was shown into a large hanger with very thick, heavily insulated walls. When I asked what these were for a navy guy who was guiding me around said that this hanger was used to test the electronic weaponry of the Tomcats and that without the insulation these would have demolished the entire electricity grid of New York City about 80 miles south. The weapons have not been used in their mass destruction capacity in any war since (at least not that I know of), but I have always wondered how much development has gone on in secret aimed at making it a more targeted weapon. So I used a development of this as the basis for the cheating that is the center story of the book. Then three things happened recently that have made me wonder how much I may have stumbled on. In June or July the Hackers Convention in Las Vegas featured a couple of groups who claimed that they have hacked into the electrics or road cars and taken over some of the controls. Then at the beginning of December the BBC showed a story of tests being made where a team used roadside magnetic impulses to destroy road cars electrics. Finally, just before I published the book as an e-book, a friend read it. He is a computer expert who worked for the last 30 years in some top secret capacity in Virginia, specializing in weapons developments and his first comment to me when reading Zapped was to ask “How the hell I knew?” So while the book does suggest that this type of attach on Grand Prix cars is feasible, and also says that there is some way to go before it is readily available, like a radar gun, it doers suggest that racing take a look at the horrible potential of what could happen is someone in a grandstand aimed a zapped at a car on the track and caused it to crash. Hope you get a chance to read the book.
Happy New Year
Alan Wilson
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