Before the 2014 Olympics, German automaker BMW reimagined the bobsled, building for Team USA a sleeker, lighter ride. In 2016, it’s Paralympic athletes’ turn, as the Bavarians are making a faster, better wheelchair.
“The idea is the wheelchair disappears and it is just about the athletes,” says BMW Designworks project lead Brad Cracchiola. “These athletes are truly incredible and work very hard, they just don’t have a lot of publicity.”
Previous chairs were made of welded aluminum, which doesn’t scream high-tech. So ahead of the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro this summer, the BMW Designworks studio in California set out to upgrade the performance-limiting aluminum racing chair used by Paralympic athletes in nearly every distance event, including the 100 meters all the way up to the marathon. BMW had plenty of room to get creative, as the rules require only a completely hand-cranked chain (no gears means no mechanical advantage) and mechanically engaged braking (no electric or other devices allowed). Otherwise, the chair just has to fit within the lanes.
BMW started the process with a 3D scan of athletes in the current chair and then ran aerodynamic simulations of how the old setup performed. For the new chair, BMW quickly switched to carbon fiber to provide a greater strength-to-weight ratio than aluminum and to open up new shaping possibilities for aerodynamic needs, with the idea to keep the flow of air as smooth as...