Watch A Chinese Voyah EV Successfully Send It Through A Tunnel Loop Like In Schumacher's Mercedes SLS Ad

As we've all discovered through our own personal trials of pushing Matchbox and Hot Wheels around an upside-down track loop, physics is fickle and it's not easy to get a vehicle to successfully complete a loop. It's difficult enough that when Mercedes-Benz attempted a loop stunt in 2010 for an SLS AMG ad, the brand enlisted the best of the best, Michael Schumacher. Chinese automaker Voyah (of Dongfeng origin) just recreated that same video in 2026 with its Passion S electric SUV in a test tunnel in Wuhan, making sure to provide a full uncut video to illustrate how its EV can pull off the same stunt as a Mercedes supercar.

That last little line isn't Jalopnik throwing shade at Mercedes, but it might be a little shade from Voyah. Over the years there has been discussion on whether or not that Mercedes and Schumacher performance of a full 360-degree maneuver through the tunnel was really as successful as it was portrayed in the video. And it's not to doubt the seven-time Formula 1 World Champion's skills, or the performance of a Mercedes-AMG product. But if you want some entertaining rabbit-hole reading for later, many forums discussed the potential believability of the German factory's stunt.

And that discourse is exactly why Voyah was sure to provide a couple of angles of the 360-degree maneuver completed by the Passion S in its full cinematic video. The 2:22 video begins with a nod to the Mercedes ad. In fact, the onscreen text in English reads, "16 years ago, one film made German driving dynamics a legend. 16 years on, China writes the next one." The company adds, "The difference? This time, it's all real. No effects. No cuts." Voyah isn't playing around.

The video shows behind-the-scenes work leading up to the real-time stunt in action, much like the Mercedes video did back in 2010. Don't feel entirely bad if you giggle when the video presents this massive heavy electric SUV much like the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. The SLS weighed about 3,800 pounds at its release, while the high-spec Voyah is nearly 2000 pounds heavier at just under 5,500 pounds. That's a bit of extra weight to send around and upside-down in a tunnel. It does come off a little absurd, but the pay-off is worthwhile.

As demonstrated in the video, Voyah's engineers utilized physical and computer-aided models to put the physics to the test and ensure 5,500 pounds of vehicle could be sent 'round the Wuhan test tunnel successfully. And even in one of their real attempts shared with Car News China, testing wasn't always successful. But with a lot of math, trial and error, Voyah accomplished what could be thought of the near impossible. One of the videos in the Car News China article shows full, uncut clips from several angles of the final stunt from outside of the car to the driver's seat. With those on display, there's little room left for doubts as to if this stunt was actually accomplished. It seems almost unreal that that hunk of vehicle was even able to do it.

While non-Chinese automakers do release cool-ish stunt videos, I'm having a hard time thinking of the last time one of them accomplished a stunt just as wild, aside from the Gymkhana videos of yore. And those weren't always backed by an automaker. It's not that EVs are not capable of such feats, as we know they are. But where are the exciting stunt videos that aren't just Nürburgring records?