The 2016 Rio Olympics are now officially over, but that doesn’t mean we don’t get to watch anymore Olympic games, does it? Of course not. Carwow is here to provide all of the Olympic entertainment you could ever want. If you want Automotive Olympic entertainment, that is.
We’ve actually covered a few of the Carwow Olympic games so far. We’ve done the shot put, rhythmic gymnastics and the revers drag race thus far. There are four contestants in the Automotive Olympics: The Caterham 620S representing Great Britain, the Honda Civic Type R representing Japan, the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 for USA and the BMW M2 for Germany.
The latest event is the Braking Javelin. Now, typically the javelin event has a person throwing a sharp javelin into some dirt. That would probably be dangerous to do with a car, so Carwow decided to make a safer version. Each car will have a beanbag placed on its hood, then accelerate as hard as it can to a designated braking point, then slam on its brakes. The beanbag will then fly off the hood and whichever car launches its beanbag furthest wins. It’s that simple.
Up first is the Jeep, representing ‘Merica. It has a pretty big advantage, thanks to its height, which allows the beanbag to get some extra momentum as it flies off the hood. This results in an impressive 7.64 meters. Up next is the Caterham 620S, which is very light, so it should stop very abruptly. But it’s also very low to the ground and doesn’t have ABS, so it only throws the bag 5.21 meters. Following the Caterham is the Honda. Surprisingly, the Civic Type R has superb brakes and stops the car really quickly, resulting in an 11.85 meter throw, besting the other two contestants. Up next is the BMW M2 and it has a tough number to beat now. But it does it, as its grippy brakes and sticky tires help it haul itself to a stop rapidly and throw the bag 14.90 meters, crushing the competition.
So the BMW M2 takes home the gold in the Braking Javelin event, with the Honda getting the silver and the Jeep settling for Bronze. This puts Germany at the top of the medal count, as the M2 has one gold, one silver and one bronze. Great Britain’s Caterham has one gold and one silver, making it tied for second place overall with the Honda from Japan, which also has one gold and one silver. That leaves America and the Jeep Grand Cherokee in last, with just three bronze medals.
