Range Rover Sport ‘ski run’ TV ad
Impressed ( go on, admit it, you were)) by the Range Rover Sport ad shown on TV here in February?
You know, the one where a bloke blasts down a ski slope in what looks like a standard raspberry red Range Rover Sport?
Even if you are not, there’s a decent enough story behind the ad for anyone into four- wheeling.
Switzerland’s Inferno Mürren is one of the oldest and most challenging downhill ski runs in the world and it was chosen ( in the off-season!) by Range Rover to showcase the off- road abilities of the Terrain Response- equipped Sport model.
Speeds of up to 155 km/ h, 75 percent gradients and a 2,170 metre descent over a 14.9 km course were all part of the challenge accepted by Top Gear’s most famous ex- Stig, race and stunt driver Ben Collins, who completed it in a time of 21min 36sec.
“This was genuinely one of the hardest tests I’ve faced in my driving career,” said Collins afterwards. “The route was insane and certainly the toughest course I’ve ever completed. It challenged you with every kind of obstacle this side of molten lava and as conditions go, it was about as bad as it gets – torrential weather mixed with cliffs, trees, all kinds of stuff you don’t really want to crash into.
“The key to the run was precision: being able to maintain speed and carry that speed down the hill in the way the skiers can do, carving through the turns, and I couldn’t have asked for a better machine to do the job.”
As the TV ad shows, the treacherous mountain course tested the Range Rover Sport’s capability with ice and sleet at the top, where Collins reached 120km/ h, and fog and wet grass at the bottom, where he hit 155km/ h.
The feat was achieved in a Range Rover Sport with a 510PS 5.0- litre supercharged V8 petrol engine, standard apart from the essential safety additions of a roll cage and aftermarket t yres.
A film documenting the challenge is available to view at www.youtube.com/ watch? v= AzNOXjpr_ i4