The Stig, the Range Rover and the Inferno

You'll need more than Dutch courage to take on one of the steepest and most dangerous ski runs in Europe. But to make the descent in a $170,000 supercharged V8 SUV that weighs 2.3 tonnes is utter madness.

Yet that's exactly what Range Rover tasked British race driver and former "Stig", Ben Collins, with for its latest PR stunt.

The almost-15km (9.2 mile) plunge took Collins 21 minutes and 36 seconds to complete and during the descent the 375kW Range Rover Sport reaching speeds of 155km/h (96mph). Although that time is significantly slower than skiers, the fact that it's been attempted at all is astounding.

"This was genuinely one of the hardest tests I’ve faced in my driving career. The route was insane and certainly the toughest course I've ever completed," said Collins.

Named after the Inferno race which it has hosted since the late 1920s, the downhill ski course is located in Mürren, Switzerland, and has an altitude drop of 2770 metres and gradients of up to 75 per cent (approximately 36 degrees).

Now Range Rover Sport is the first production vehicle to complete downhill run, which has be immortalised in a video.

The PR stunt was designed to highlight the Range Rover Sport's Terrain Response tech, which adapts the vehicle's anti-roll bars, suspension and differentials to ensure traction. A number of different surfaces were encountered on the mad-capped descent, says Collins -- ice and snow to gravel, grass, loose rock, mud and broken asphalt.

"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," explained Collins.

"I had to use the Terrain Response because the grass was like an ice rink and it really got me out of trouble. I believed in the car and it meant we could shed a lot of time over the runs. To be honest I abused it and it just kept on going - I couldn't have asked for a better machine to do the job," he concluded in true PR style.

Range Rover has attempted several other death-defying stunts to promote its SUVs, including setting a record for the fastest SUV up the famous Pikes Peak hill climb in 2013. The luxury SUV also traversed the Arabian Peninsula's Empty Quarter desert in record time.

Although this latest record attempt is merely a thinly-veiled PR stunt, it's still bloody impressive.

Enjoy the video.