Chinese electric crossover Voyah Passion S has performed a 360-degree "loop the loop" inside a closed tunnel in Wuhan, replicating the famous Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG advertising stunt associated with Michael Schumacher 16 years ago, reports infohub.kz.
For the stunt, a production-spec Voyah Passion S was used without weight reduction or other modifications. The car retained its standard battery and full suite of intelligent driving systems.
To keep the car from falling off the tunnel surface, it had to accelerate to about 130 km/h and enter the curve at a 16-degree angle. Speed was the key factor: as Voyah claims, a decrease of just 3–5 km/h could have led to a loss of grip and the crossover crashing down.
Unlike the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG sports car, the Chinese electric vehicle is much larger and heavier. It uses two electric motors and all-wheel drive, delivering a combined 637 hp and 765 Nm of torque.
The Chinese company directly calls the run a tribute to the famous Mercedes-Benz video, in which Michael Schumacher allegedly performed a similar stunt in an SLS AMG, although even then there were debates about whether the legendary driver was really behind the wheel.
Now Voyah has repeated the stunt in a production electric car. According to the company, the video was shot without special effects.
The Voyah Passion S is just preparing to enter the Chinese market. Pre-orders for the model are already open, with the top version priced at 310,000 yuan (≈21.4 million tenge). The official premiere is scheduled for August 15.
Earlier, Kursiv Avto reported how Voyah sent the crossover flying with a 20-meter jump.