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news
Anna Meares vs Porsche Boxster (Facebook video still from 60 Minutes Australia).PNGVideo: Olympic champion Anna Meares versus a Porsche Boxster
Olympic sprint champion Anna Meares has shown just how powerful her acceleration is – by taking on a Porsche Boxster in a segment filmed for an Australian TV show, and winning.
The 11-time world champion – four of those titles coming in the 500m sprint, as did her first Olympic gold medal at Athens in 2004 – can accelerate from 30kph to 60kph in just three seconds, according to 60 Minutes Australia, which arranged the challenge.
Up against TV presenter Peter Stefanovic who was at the wheel of the 300 brake horsepower sports car, Meares took on the Porsche over 80 metres from a rolling start … and left it trailing.
The cyclist versus sports car duel comes just two months to go until the Rio Olympics, where Meares defends the individual sprint title she won in London four years ago.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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12 comments
Anna is a quick cyclist no doubt.
These type of tests are about as convincing as those Top Gear races, just light entertainment. FWIW, it's a manual Boxster (no dash shift lights).
Um, bear in mind one of the fastest cars in the world (2015 Porsche 918 Spyder) can only do 30-50mph in 0.8 of a second during its 2.2s 0-60mph. And thats under manufacturers optimum test conditions.
Three seconds is actually pretty quick for a Boxster from a rolling start.
its a 1999 Boxster 986 it took part in the Adelaide Motorsport festival last year, might not be the quickest Porsche they had, but it should still do 0-60 in 8 seconds, and it ought to be capable still of doing getting from 30kph upto 60kph in less than 3 seconds, but the power band is 4k-6krpm range and that guy was nowhere near in that range either at the start, or by the end, and it was almost certainly tiptronic autobox, and he probably didnt stamp on the gas pedal to get it to shift properly, its electronics probably thought it was cruising in traffic and just feeding the power in smoothly.
that aside Anna is more than capable of hitting 60kph, sprinters do hit that speed, even if its only briefly, so the point of the test is valid, she is that fast, or can be that fast at least, they just needed to pick a less obvious Top Gear style fix car to race against.
It must be a "race car" he is wearing fireproofs, which seems slightly excessive to drive at 80kmph
When he says he floors it he's revving at less than 3000rpm. He must be in 5th or 6th gear. The car would go a hell of a lot faster if he was starting in a lower gear. You can clearly hear the car struggling to accelerate because it's over-geared. It would be more interesting to see the cyclist and car have a fair race to show how fast elite level cyclists are. The car would probably win, but not by as much as most non cycling fans would think.
Probably texting
Problem with racing angsty drivers off the lights, (you know the ones who rev out quickly to get past you) is that you have to clip in then burst. I'm still really bad at that. Rolling starts like this are great, but standing starts.. those need way better riders than me.
Not that I could outsprint Anna, but I could definitely outsprint loads of crappier cars if I could clip in faster
Get yourself some double sided 'moutain bike' SPD pedals, I have them and have lots of fun out sprinting traffic from a standing start on the lights (but remember you MUST stay seated and not look like you are working hard!)
What a load of crap, was he sitting in 6th?
With the handbrake on and delayed reactions
That 13 year old Boxster could barely hit 0-60mph in less than 6 seconds when brand new (under 250hp); in fact, some journals couldn't even break 6 with it. Factor in age loss and poor driving, it's pretty reasonable she could beat it. It's just a deceptively slower car than people realize.
I chuckled when the host called it a "race car", just because it has some stickers...
My mate had the 2009 S version and even that wasn't greatly impressive for the money. It looked nice and handled well I suppose but once you're used to motorbike acceleration most cars seem a bit meh. You also got stuck in endless queues just like normal cars.