Official Automotive Partner of the 2012 London Olympics BMW has chosen an original way to promote its BMW 320d EfficientDynamics—a vehicle being used within the BMW London 2012 Olympic fleet. On 13 May, sprinter, Olympic gold medalist and BMW London 2012 Performance team member Mark Lewis-Francis joined sports scientist Professor Greg Whyte on The Mall in London to observe and document the parallels between the acceleration of the sprinter and a BMW vehicle.

Photo: Mark Lewis-Francis vs BMW car

Lewis-Francis performed a series of sprint tests set against the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics. His acceleration, reaction time and speed were recorded across three different distances and the sprinter proved that a human body can be quicker at reaction than a machine.

Prof Whyte explained: “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.”

Being the command car for the Olympic Torch Relay, BMW 320d EfficientDynamics plays crucial operational role within the Olympic fleet. The car generates a 68.9mpg fuel consumption and just 109g/km CO2 emissions and delivers 0-62mph performance of 8.0 seconds.

The experiment was made to underline that BMW is constantly reviewing in the engineering of its vehicles and working on improvements. Now, BMW claims to be the most sustainable automaker in the world. It was chosen by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) as the Official Automotive Partner for its sustainability credentials. The automaker provides the Games with a diverse fleet of cars, bikes and motorcycles that will be performing a wide range of duties.

Photo: Mark Lewis-Francis vs BMW car