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In his latter years, racer and inventor John Fitch became mildly obsessed with electromagnetic pulses (EMPs). Specifically, he feared that such a pulse of energy would fry the electronics in modern automobiles, turning them into two-ton paperweights. His solution, as per his modus operandi, was to design a car from the ground up; this one would use minimal electronics and even a points ignition as did cars from decades past.
He steered conversation toward the topic at every opportunity during my visit with him in 2009, and though I didn't include his concerns and ideas about EMPs and cars in the article I wrote about him that followed, I've wondered since then if these were merely the musings of a 92-year-old man or if Fitch's concerns were valid and worth investigating.
Of course, in the years since, an entire internet industry has steamrolled all discussion about EMP effects on cars in an effort to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt in order to subsequently sell gadgets to preppers worried about societal collapse, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction. Even before that, Popular Mechanics took a swing at scaring the American public with an ill-timed September 2001 cover article on "E-Bombs." And let's not forget all the sci-fi and apocalyptic movies and TV shows depicting eight lanes of highway traffic brought to a dead stop by an EMP attack, however unrealistic even EMP researchers find them.
But the idea that older cars with less or no electronics are better suited to a theoretical electromagnetic pulse than newer cars with their electronic gizmos remains so embedded in our collective consciousness that few stop to question whether that's really the case, so let's try to suss out the science as best as any group of non-physicist gearheads can.
Keep reading and discover:
- What is an EMP?
- Why people are so concerned about EMPs
- What an EMP will do to a car
- If you are better off driving an old car
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Re: Will Older Cars Survive an Electromagnetic Pulse Better Than New Cars?
