Top 10 Olympic Related Cars

With the 2024 Olympic Games well underway in Paris the whole world will be watching the thousands of athletes competing for over 200 nations in multiple events over the next few weeks. There may be a distinct lack of automotive events that feature in the Olympics, but whilst we are on the subject, could we not have a Paris F1 street race for a gold medal, a Rally special stage over the mountain biking circuit or a Time trial along the Marathon route?

Nevertheless, there have still been a limited number of cars influenced by the world’s foremost sports competition or many more that have names that can be related to events or disciplines at the event. As a result, we have put together our guide to the automotive industry’s Top 10 Olympic Related Cars:

Opel Olympia

One of the only vehicles on our list that was actually named after the famous sporting event, the Opel Olympia got its name as a celebration of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. It was incredibly advanced for its time and was Germany’s first mass-produced car as well as being one of the world’s first with an all-metal unitary body. Despite not being replaced by a successive model, the name was carried on and taken one step further with the athletic theme in 1953 with the introduction of the Opel Olympia Rekord, later becoming simply the Opel Rekord.

Jowett Javelin

Produced from 1947 to 1953 the Javelin was a radical leap forward for Jowett to design something sleek and aerodynamic as its name would suggest. The streamlined appearance featured headlights faired into the wings and for the first time from a British car, a curved windscreen. Its lightweight construction and aerodynamic properties meant that had good performance for its era as well as impressive fuel economy. This was demonstrated with a class wins at the 1949 Monte Carlo Rally, the 1949 Spa 24-hour race and 1952 International RAC Rally.

DAF 55 Marathon

Dutch truck manufacturer DAF once also produced cars and in the late 1960’s created a small family car called the DAF 55. Essentially a more powerful version of their 44, it also featured an extensive redesign and newly developed engine in partnership with Renault. After a successful venture in the gruelling 16,500km London-Sydney Marathon, the dealer fit ‘Marathon’ package became available featuring wider wheels, upgraded interior parts, a go faster stripe to the exterior, a brake booster and power increase for the engine.

Citroen Relay

Perhaps the most un-sporting-related and tedious link to the Olympics but nonetheless one of the most iconic events that takes place at the event, the Relay. Citroen have produced the Relay commercial vehicle since 2006 to the present day in collaboration with Peugeot for their Boxer (coincidentally also an Olympic sport) and Fiat with their Ducato. It may be well overdue an update and is starting to show its age these days however the addition of the e-Relay electric van means it is at least offering eco-friendly and modern credentials.

Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake

Famous design house and coachbuilder Zagato have a long history of enhancing and releasing special edition Aston Martin vehicles. Their recent Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake not only gives us another addition to the list of a sporting event from the Olympics but is one of the most desirable and sought after Aston Martin models in recent years. Just 99 examples of the high performance estate were built making the Zagato Shooting Brake a collectible future classic, even at its £650,000 (plus taxes) starting price.

Alfa Romeo Sprint

Alfa Romeo’s illustrious history of sports and performance cars are one of the longest and highly regarded out of any manufacturer. In the late 1970’s they introduced a stylish coupe version of their Alfasud family car in the form of the Sprint. Created by designer Giorgetto Giugiaro the stylish hatchback coupe was a popular iteration of the Alfasud model and by the late 1980’s over 116,000 had been sold. With no direct predecessor or successor the Sprint is instantly recognisable of late 1970’s and 1980’s Italian car design, with more than a resemblance, especially from the front, of the Volkswagen Golf (another Olympic event incidentally) which was penned by the same design studio a year earlier.

First Editions

The number of ‘Gold’ model cars are few and far between however in order to be awarded a gold medal you have to finish first, and there are plenty of First Edition cars to choose from (see what we did there). From Lotus Emiras to Bentley Bentaygas and Continental GT’s, Jaguar F-Types, Land Rover Defenders and BMW X5’s, many brands use the First Edition naming to launch a new model made all the more desirable with some additional specification or optional extras not available on other models in the line up.

Rolls Royce Silver Ghost

Rolls Royce have always been a byword for opulence, luxury and the finest craftsmanship available on any car, anywhere. One of their most iconic badging nomenclatures has been the ‘Silver’ series, from the Silver Ghost, to the Silver Cloud, Silver Shadow, Silver Spirit, Silver Wraith, Silver Dawn and Silver Seraph. In fact, the Silver Ghost was the reason why the brand has been known as making the ‘best car in the world’, not self-proclaimed but pronounced by Autocar magazine in 1907. They have simply lived up to that statement ever since.

Range Rover Sport SV Edition One Carbon Bronze

From a vintage car to a brand new one and from the Silver Ghost to the Range Rover Sport SV Edition One Bronze Edition. In athletics terms the Bronze obviously signifies coming third however there is nothing other than first class craftsmanship, performance and capability from the SV Edition. The flagship Range Rover Sport is their most powerful, quickest and most dynamic car yet, however it manages to retain all of the luxury and refinement you expect of the Range Rover brand. A very impressive car indeed showing exactly what is possible in a modern performance SUV without appearing to have a drawback.

Studebaker Champion

For 50 years the Studebaker Manufacturing Company started as a coachbuilder until in 1902 they moved on to automobiles until their demise in 1967. With a reputation for quality, durability and reliability in the late 1930’s they introduced the Studebaker Champion. The model was one of the brand’s best-selling models thanks to being an all-new model with modern styling for the time, a reliable and durable engine and a low price point. It was also incredibly light compared to its rivals and had incredible fuel economy at a time when efficiency was becoming a key attribute.

Those That Only Made The Heats

That may be the end of our Top 10 Olympic Related Cars countdown however there are plenty more worth a mention. The most obvious is the Rochdale Olympic, a low production small glass fibre bodied coupe from 1959. Available as a kit that you could build yourself, the Olympic cost £670 including the engine and all mechanical parts and was even shown at the Geneva Motor Show. About 400 were made in its 14 years of production.

American Muscle car fans may be familiar with the Plymouth Road Runner, which despite its athletic connections is actually named after the cartoon character. Dead set on using the iconic cartoon character for the model Plymouth even paid Warner Brothers $50,000 to use the name and image on the car as well as spending $10,000 developing a matching “beep, beep” themed horn. Keeping with the USA, the Checker Marathon is the publicly available version of the iconic yellow taxis that graced the streets of their cities for so long and has been a staple of American movies for many years.

Anything built by British brand Triumph could easily be seen as a connection to Olympic events, after all that is what the athletes are aspiring to. Also in this way, the BMW M5 Competition is what they are doing in the first place and the Jaguar XJS Celebration is ideally the result they are hoping for. For this they will no doubt need to employ a considerable amount of what is found in the naming of the Bentley Continental GT Speed as well as the rare and often forgotten MG X-Power.

For an even more tedious connection to the events in the Olympics there is always the Audi 100 and Audi 200 models that could be associated with the 100 and 200 metres sprints. They were even called the Audi 5000 in the US, another event discipline. Mazda also produced the 1500 and Toyota had a Corolla variant called the Toyota Sprinter, something that Mercedes Benz still have with their range of commercial vehicles. Speaking of commercial vehicles, there is a double connection with the aforementioned Citroen Relay, as outside of the UK the range is actually called the Citroen Jumper.

As for those lesser-known models that still relate to events or techniques in the Olympics, there is the aptly named Suzuki Jimny based Dutton Surf amphibious car. Then keeping with the water theme but this time in the pool, the Land Rover Freelander Freestyle is one of the standout special edition models with athletic related naming. There was even a British-French automobile manufacturer in the early 20th century called Badminton Motors Limited, however after just 2 years the company was no more.

For those looking for something more obvious and of course actually named after Olympics of years gone by there are the Rover 25 and 45 Olympic Impression Team GB Special Edition cars, to celebrate Rover sponsoring Team GB. Not the most inspiring special edition models however they did actually give you the opportunity to win one of the limited-edition cars. Then there are the Hyundai Stellar Gold Medal Special Edition launched to celebrate the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, and the Renault Espace V6 and Clio ‘Olympique 92’ Albertville Edition to commemorate the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.

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