BMW sets 9 records with Hydrogen Combustion Engine. Top Speed over 300 km/h

Munich / Miramas. Hydrogen means top performance not only in rockets travelling
to outer space:
BMW has proven what the hydrogen car is able to offer, setting up 9 records for
hydrogen-drive cars with combustion engine. "Nine records marking the start
into the hydrogen age. BMW technology has already come a long way. Now,
together with politicians and the energy industry, we must turn our vision of
sustained mobility into reality", stated Professor Burkhard Göschel, Board
Member of the BMW Group, during the speed record trials in Miramas. Achieving
this amazing success at the high-speed Miramas Proving Grounds in France, the
BMW Group has clearly proven its conviction that hydrogen is able to replace
conventional fuel without requiring the driver to make the slightest compromise
in terms of dynamic, up-to-date performance.

Indeed, the specifications of the H2R Record Car clearly confirm this
superiority, the six-litre 12 cylinder power unit developing an output of more
than 210 kW or 285 bhp. This accelerates the BMW prototype to 100 km/h in
approximately 6 seconds and gives it a top speed of 302,4 km/h (185,52 mph).
Based on the gasoline power unit featured in the BMW 760i, BMW's hydrogen
combustion engine boasts the most advanced technologies such as BMW's fully
variable VALVETRONIC valve drive.

The main modifications to the engine involve the fuel injection system adapted
by BMW to the special features and requirements of hydrogen, the H2R Record Car
benefiting from the results gained in series development of BMW's future
hydrogen engine for the world's first premium saloon built for dual-mode
operation: BMW will be launching a dual-mode version of the current 7 Series
during the production cycle of the present model, thus introducing the first
car of its kind able to run on both hydrogen and gasoline.

The H2R prototype set up the following records shown here in terms of times
measured and speed achieved:

time in sec - speed in km/h
- Flying-start kilometre: 11,993 - 300,190
- Flying-start mile: 19,912 - 290,962
- Standing-start 1/8 mile: 9,921 - 72,997
- Standing-start ¼ mile: 14,933 - 96,994
- Standing-start ½ kilometre: 17,269 - 104,233
- Standing-start mile: 36,725 - 157,757
- Standing-start 10 miles: 221,052 - 262,094
- Standing-start kilometre: 26,557 - 135,557
- Standing-start 10 kilometres: 146,406 - 245,892

These records are subject to FIA recognition. We expect clearance by the end
of 2004.

BMW works drivers Alfred Hilger, Jörg Weidinger and Günther Weber took turns at
the wheel of the Record Car in their record-breaking session.

BMW's motive in setting up these records was not only to prove the power and
performance the hydrogen engine is able to offer. Rather, the reliability and
durability of the technology used clearly demonstrates the supremacy of BMW in
developing the hydrogen engine to production standard. In this process BMW is
concentrating on the combustion engine, simply because the combustion power
unit, given the sum total of all its features and characteristics, still offers
the largest number of advantages and benefits all in one.