To celebrate its 80th anniversary, Speedo has launched the SPEEDO LZR RACER suit, which independent testing has shown to be the world’s fastest swimsuit.
Speedo has harnessed the expertise of the United States space agency NASA, amongst a number of international research institutes, to create a faster suit that has 10 per cent less passive drag than Speedo’s FASTSKIN FSII and five per cent less passive drag than the Speedo FS-PRO, which was launched in March 2007 and has seen swimmers break 21 world records as a result.
Made from LZR PULSE, an ultra-lightweight, low-drag, water-repellent, fast-drying fabric unique to Speedo, the LZR RACER is the world’s first fully-bonded swimsuit that is ultrasonically welded and gives the effect of no seams at all. Ultra low drag LZR Panels are embedded into the base fabric to create a ‘Hydro Form Compression system’, helping to compress the entire swimmer’s body into a more streamlined shape and enabling them to cut through the water with more power and agility.
Speedo scanned the bodies of more than 400 elite swimmers and held technical tests involving more than 100 different fabrics and suit designs in the world’s leading flume and test centres. Its quest to enable swimmers to swim faster than ever before took the company all over the world from the NASA Langley Research Centre to the Australian Institute of Sport, Otago University in New Zealand and working with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software from ANSYS, Inc, whose technology is also used in F1 motor racing and America’s Cup yachting.
The result is an engineered swimsuit whose 3D anatomical shape has a Core Stabiliser with a corset-like grip to support and hold the swimmer so they can maintain the best body position in the water for longer without losing freedom or flexibility of movement.
The LZR RACER suit’s unique design also provides swimmers with up to five per cent more efficiency in terms of their oxygen intake, enabling them to swim stronger for longer. The suit, which has been approved by FINA (Fédération International de Natation Amateur), will debut at national trials around the world from March 2008. A retail version of the suit will go on sale in May 2008.
