Watch the Range Rover Sport SVR Tackle Tianmen Road’s 99 Turns

The Range Rover Sport SVR has completed the Tianmen Road in China with an unofficial time of 9 minutes, 51 seconds, beating the previous record of 10 minutes and 31 seconds set by a Ferrari 458 Italia. Behind the wheel of the performance SUV was Ho-Pin Tung, the JLR test driver and Panasonic Jaguar Racing reserve driver who also recently climbed the 999 steps to China’s Heaven’s Gate in a Range Rover Sport hybrid.

With a 174-mph top speed, the 575-hp Range Rover Sport SVR is one of only a handful of performance SUVs, featuring a performance-oriented chassis that’s been tuned to ensure that the car has excellent cornering capabilities, minimal pitch under heavy acceleration and braking, good body control, and plenty of grip through corners. The 99 turns of Tianmen Road, which is located in China’s Hunan Province, proved challenging to Tung because it required lots of concentration to maintain a rhythm going uphill and avoid the steep drop-offs on the side, which would have had dire consequences if he went over.

Earlier this year, Tung piloted a Range Rover Sport Plug-In Hybrid up the 999-step, 45-degree grade to Heaven’s Gate, which is where Tianmen Road ends. Unlike the Range Rover Sport SVR, the Range Rover Sport Plug-In Hybrid has a 2.0-liter turbo-four and an electric motor with a total output of 398 hp.

Check out the video below.

Source: Land Rover

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