Olympian Races BMW 320d and Wins

Because BMW is supplying the official vehicles for the London Olympics, they are also doing a variety of promotional events with their cars. One of the first pitted Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Lewis-Francis raced a BMW 320d EfficientDynamics on the Mall in London.

Lewis-Francis was pitted against the 320d in a series of sprints that were analyzed by sport science professor Greg Whyte who recorded his reaction time, acceleration and speed over three different distances. 

Lewis-Francis was faster than the BMW from 0-20m and was nearly faster than the car to 30m. By 100m, Lewis-Francis was three seconds slower than the BMW. Off of the blocks, Lewis-Francis was putting his body under 1G of force, which is impressive because we still see that has a benchmark if a car can do that. 

Lewis-Francis won a gold medalist in the 2004 Athens Olympics in the 4X100m relay. 

"Today has shown just how important those small efficiencies are and how they equally relate to engineering in cars. I did not expect to be able to outrun the BMW for so long," said Lewis-Francis.

“From the split second that the gun sounded up until 4 seconds Mark was, perhaps surprisingly, quicker than the BMW. Through looking at Mark’s results and measuring how they compare to the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics we’re able to put into context how well an Olympic sprinter accelerates," said Professor Whyte.

The 320d EfficientDynamics is among the cars that BMW donated to the Olympic vehicle fleet. It provided a fleet of 3,122 cars to the London Olympics. 

BMW Provides Fleet of Cars to London Olympic Games

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