Anniversaries are important; we all know that. And birthdays in particular are just great. You cut a cake, celebrate with friends and family and maybe go out and party. The mighty Range Rover however sneers at such paltry efforts at revelry.
The British born (India-owned) SUV, and the brand in general are known for being a little more rugged, and a little more extreme than your average, ordinary, everyday auto-brand, so how can they celebrate their 45th birthday just like everyone else? They had to do something that’s out of the box, and they did.
They went to Suzhou in China, a town with water running through it and known for its bridges, and built a bridge five metres long and 3.4 metres high. This isn’t remarkable you would think, but things get a little more interesting when you realise they built the bridge completely out of paper, and didn’t even use any glue or sundry nuts, screws, and bolts to keep it from falling apart. Not only did they build a bridge entirely out of paper though (there were wooden support slats used to help stack the papers, but they were removed once the bridge was complete), they also decided to drive a full-fledged Range Rover across said bridge. Let that sink in for a moment. A Range Rover, weighing upwards of 2000 kilograms, on a bridge that’s quite literally made of paper.
Chris Zhou, Chief Instructor at the Land Rover Experience was given the task of getting behind the wheel and attempting this birthday stunt (apparently, that’s a thing now), and to do it properly he used Land Rover’s All-Terrain Progress Control (ATPC). ATPC is a piece of tech that maintains a pre-set speed anywhere between 1.6 km/h and 30.5 km/h without any throttle input so that all the driver has to do is worry about the steering bit in difficult terrain – a paper bridge would certainly qualify.
You might think that this made the whole ordeal a lot easier, but it doesn’t seem that way. You don’t have to take our word for it though, watch the video below of the building of the bridge, and the actual attempt and see for yourself.
Now think back to your last birthday, do still think what you did was a celebration?
