BMW Debuts New Carbon Fibre Bobsled

After a year in development BMW North America have showcased this two-man bobsled to be used by the US team.

Developed in collaboration with the USA Bobsled & Skeleton Federation (USBSF), the carbon fibre bobsled will be used for the first time at the FIBT World Cup in Igls, Austria.

U.S. men’s bobsled head coach Brian Shimer said

The results of our testing thus far have been promising, but the true test of a bobsled’s speed is determined in competition, the team couldn’t wait to get this sled on the ice, so we bumped up its debut to Igls and we’re looking forward to seeing it in action. We need to test it under race conditions to see what improvements to make for next season.

this high-tech bobsled has paired lightweight materials, such as carbon fibre, with optimised aerodynamics, BMW were able to reconfigure the sled’s weight distribution to achieve an optimised balance of the regulations’ mandated sled weight. The result is a significantly lighter body shell with a low centre of gravity.

Michael Scully, Creative Director, BMW Group DesignworksUSA, BMW Group’s international design and creative consultancy.

After more than a year-long development process, we’re thrilled for the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation to finally race this bobsled, BMW EfficientDynamics techniques are at the heart of the sled’s design, making it sleeker, lighter and we hope faster: essentially a BMW on ice. We’re anxious to see how it performs against Team USA’s competitors.

This is the second BMW two-man bobsled prototype developed for Team USA, and it will remain in development for the remainder of the 2012/2013 FIBT World Cup competition season. BMW will continue gathering data and feedback from the athletes, coaches and individual races to enhance the performance of the new sled in preparation for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

[rssless][connections id=’189′][/rssless]