During a race on Virgina’s Richmond International Raceway in 2003, Nascar driver Robby Gordon lost control of his car as he roared into the pit at 55mph. He smashed sideways into the concrete slab that separates the crew from the pit road and wrecked his car. Luckily, he didn’t do the same to his body. Had he hit the divider head-on, the collision could have transferred a 100G-force jolt to his body, more than enough to kill him.
In an effort to reduce such a nasty risk, Nascar has turned to scientists at Battelle, an R&D company in Columbus, Ohio. Their solution: a new hyper-elastic material called FlexAll that deforms to absorb an incoming force and then bounces back to its original shape within minutes.
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