When Bradley Wiggins returns to earth after the euphoria of winning two Olympic gold medals for cycling, he will be in hot pursuit of some new wheels – a set capable of propelling him to 155mph with the effortless movement of a single ankle. “I’ve promised myself a BMW M3 after the Olympics,” says the 28-year-old, who has now ped-alled his way to six Olympic medals in three consecutive Games. “I’ve always had a thing for BMs.”

These are not words you expect from one of the nation’s top cyclists, but Wiggins loves four-wheeled machines almost as much as his ultra-light carbon fibre bikes. “I had a BMW 3-series but since I’ve had kids I’ve progressed to the 5-series,” he says. “I had a 520 diesel and I’ve now got a black 535 M Sport diesel, which is close to 300bhp – great for burning off boy racers at the lights.”

Even with 420bhp under the bonnet, it’s hard to imagine the M3 will deliver anything like the sensation of flying round an Olympic velodrome at speeds in excess of 40mph. “Beijing was amazing,” says Wiggins, just back from the Olympic village, looking a little jet-lagged as he slumps in a chair in The Sunday Times’s offices, but clearly still on a high. “The atmosphere was incredible, mainly because of the number of British fans who had managed to get over there. You could hear them cheering you on as you went round. I mean, you weren’t totally aware of them all the time but when you went over the line it was just brilliant.”

The Games, which close today, saw Britain win a total of eight gold medals in the cycling events. Wiggins’s two were in the individual and team pursuits, and he helped to set a new world record in the latter event with a time of 3min 53.314sec. He narrowly missed out on becoming the first Briton in a century to win three Olympic golds in one Games. That honour passed to Chris Hoy, 32, his Scottish teammate.

“We were expecting to do well,” says Wiggins, “but not as well as we did. The best moment for me was breaking the world record in the team pursuit by three seconds. And it’s fantastic for the sport. It’s made it much more sexy.”

Cycling is in Wiggins’s DNA. His Australian father was Gary Wiggins, a pro cyclist; Bradley was born in Ghent, Bel-gium, during one of his father’s competitions. When his parents broke up, Wiggins moved with his mother to a council estate in Maida Vale, west London. As a child he rode bikes, mostly BMXs, but, inspired by Chris Boardman, the British cycling hero who won gold in Barcelona in 1992, he took up road racing and discovered he was a natural. “I used to practise in Hyde Park because it was only a mile from home and it was a closed road so my mum didn’t mind me hammering round it,” he says. “I’d time myself and sprint for signs.”

He now lives near Eccleston, Lanca-shire, with his wife, Cath, and their two children, Ben, 3, and Isabelle, 1, after an accident persuaded him that London was no longer safe for cyclists.

“I was cycling near my home in Kil-burn,” he says. “There was a bus coming one way and a skip on my side with a piece of tarpaulin flapping. I was going quite quickly so I opted to stay close to the skip. Unfortunately the rope from the tarpaulin wrapped round my front bars and dragged me into the skip. My wrist was shattered by the impact.”

It didn’t dent his love of horsepower, but his driving style is nothing like his cycling. “I like quick cars but I don’t drive them quickly,” he says. “My second car was an Audi A3 quattro Sport, but I can’t afford to lose my licence so I drive like an old woman really.”

MY STUFF...

ON MY CD CHANGER

Oasis are my all-time favourite band and I love the Jam and 1960s rock acts such as the Who, the Kinks and the Stones. I also listen to younger bands such as the Kooks and Arctic Monkeys

ON MY DVD PLAYER

Old British films, especially ones starring Michael Caine

I WOULD NEVER THROW AWAY

Two Olympic gold medals – not to mention the gold, silver and bronze I won at the last Games, in Athens, and the bronze from Sydney in 2000

BRADLEY WIGGINS: MY LIFE IN CARS

AUDI A3 QUATTRO One of Wiggins’s first cars, this Audi established his love of sporty four-wheelers

MG ZT Wiggins hung on to his ZT saloon until MG Rover went under

BMW 3-SERIES Wiggins outgrew his 3-series with the arrival of his two children, now aged three and one

BMW 535D M SPORT His 5-series diesel has room for two bicycle frames in the boot

BMW M3 Wiggins has promised himself this 420bhp Beemer now he’s back from Beijing