BMW recently disclosed photos of the carbon-fiber sled it
developed for Steve Langton and Elana Meyers, the athletes who will represent
the United States at the 2014 Winter Games next
month in Sochi, Russia.
It’s not that weird. The United States are BMW’s biggest
market, and the company has large manufacturing operations in Spartanburg, S.C.
BMW also employs hundreds of American managers and executives on top of the
7,000-plus they employ at their factories stateside.
Anyway, BMW and the USA Bobsled & Skeleton
Federation spent two years applying German design expertise to the new
two-man bobsled. Engineers did everything from re-evaluating the cowling,
aerodynamics and construction of the device to reconstructing its chassis and
steering geometries, conducting wind-tunnel and track tests, and scanning the
athlete’s bodies to create something that fit them perfectly.
It’s no small effort–the new sled replaces the 20-year-old
model Team USA had been using–but it’ll be worth it, if it works. America
has not won Olympic gold in a two-man bobsled race since 1936.
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