cars news 10: Watch a Volvo Truck Tow a Paraglider (W/Video)

Volvo is no stranger to spectacular stunts. It has towed 1.5 million pounds in a heavy-duty truck, dared Jean Claude Van Damme to do the splits between two trucks driving in reverse, and commissioned a 4-year-old girl to drive a rig via remote control. Naturally, the next step is to see how well a Volvo truck can maintain its speed to keep a paraglider up in the air.

In the video below, the Volvo FH truck tows a professional paraglider up a mountain pass in Croatia. The vehicle’s I-Shift dual clutch transmission must shift gears smoothly enough to maintain a constant speed. And if it doesn’t? Then the paraglider is going to have a hard time fitting through a very tight tunnel under a bridge. Fortunately, the stunt works as planned, and the event goes down in history as the first time a truck has towed a paraglider through a tunnel.

“Meeting deadlines and keeping fuel consumption low, even when driving uphill and on winding roads, are key elements to success for many of our customers,” said Claes Nilsson, president of Volvo Trucks, in a release. “This test is the perfect way to challenge our recently updated powertrain.”

In another historic feat, Volvo today unveiled the world’s largest bus chassis in Brazil. Measuring 30 meters, or 98 feet, the bus can fit up to 300 passengers. It was designed for high-demand transportation systems where buses get their own lanes.

We're proud to present the world's biggest bus ever, with capacity for up to 300 passengers! @VolvoBusGlobal https://t.co/hqCpHWGQXm http://pic.twitter.com/v9sF1Lv0IT

— Volvo Group (@VolvoGroup) November 24, 2016