Trust Land Rover to do something creative when celebrating a milestone. Most car makers would come out with a limited edition of the car but not the British marquee. Land Rover celebrated the Range Rover's 45th anniversary by driving the model across a paper bridge in Suzhou, China, yes you read that right paper!
Of course you want to know how the bridge was made as it was designed specifically to highlight 45 years of Range Rover innovation. The unique bridge spanned 16.4 feet and was built without using glue or bolts. The bridge took three days to construct and it was made using high quality paper supplied by British manufacturer James Cropper PLC.
After the bridge was built, the Range Rover Vogue SC V6 was assigned the task to climb on top of and to make it possible Land Rover Experience Chief Instructor Chris Zhou was tasked with driving on the bridge. He carefully navigated the model up the steep slope before briefly stopping at the top of bridge. He had to be careful considering that he was driving on paper.
The supercharged 3.0-litre V6 engine that produces 340 bhp and 450 Nm of torque managed to complete the feat with ease and dismounted to a glorious victory and yet another feather in the cap for its engineering team. Usually it would sprint to its destination because it can sprint from 0-100 km/h in just 7.3 seconds and hit a top speed of 209km/h, but Zhou had to be careful and the car crawled to the other side with ease.
According to artist and paper bridge designer, Steve Messam, "Paper structures capable of supporting people have been built before but nothing on this scale has ever been attempted. It's pushing engineering boundaries, just like the Range Rover, and the ease and composure with which the vehicle negotiated the arch was genuinely breathtaking."
