What's this then?

This is a Range Rover Sport, going up a hill.

Well, that sounds pretty normal.

It is going quite quickly...

Hang on, is that a Range Rover Sport SVR?

It is indeed. All 575hp supercharged V8 of it, complete with the new 'naked' carbon-fibre bonnet option.

And the road?

Is no ordinary road. It's actually the Tianmen Road in China, an 11.3km high-speed vertical assault course, with no fewer than 99 corners. The last car to set a record for driving up here was a Ferrari 458 in 2016, which took 10 minutes 31 seconds.

And the Range Rover was quicker?

By quite a margin. Jaguar Panasonic Formula-E racing driver Ho-Pin Tung drove the SVR for the attempt, and made it to the top in just 9 minutes 51 seconds. He was helped, doubtless, by the fact that Land Rover has updated the Range Rover Sport with some more lightweight materials, and tweaked the suspension so that it's more resistant to dive and squat, and it turns in better, with better body control as well.

Ho-Pin Tung said: "I am used to the high speeds of racing but this was even more demanding. Maintaining concentration was the biggest challenge as the road twists and turns constantly, with huge drop-offs to the side. The consequences of getting it wrong would have been really serious so I focused on establishing a rhythm and the Range Rover Sport SVR made this easy - it may be an SUV but it has the performance and agility of a supercar and can take you to places a supercar can only dream of."

Land Rover seems keen on setting Chinese records right now. Just a couple of weeks ago, a Range Rover Plugin Hybrid (PHEV) made an ascent of the famous Heaven's Gate climb to an iconic mountain rock arch.

The updated Range Rover Sport is on sale now, priced from £99,680.

Neil Briscoe - 13 Mar 2018