Volkswagen has been on a mission to collect as many records as possible with its ballistically fast Volkswagen ID. R race car. It has rampaged up the Pikes Peak hill climb, hammered its way around the Nurburgring-Nordschleife for the electric record, and snagged itself the all-time fastest time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed's tight road course.

Weighing just 2,425 lbs and making 670 horsepower, the technological wonder has taken a break from breaking records to set one. There was no existing official record for the breathtakingly beautiful ascent of the Tianmen Shan Big Gate Road in China, the but ID. R has set one that'll be tough to beat.

The 6.776-mile long road snakes up Tianmen Mountain through 99 turns, and the ID. R, with Romain Dumas at the wheel again, nailed down a time of 7 minutes and 38.585 seconds.

It'll be interesting to see if this piece of road starts to become the East Asian equivalent of the Nurburgring for record making. We're not sure other carmakers have plans to tackle this tricky stretch of road, but having seen the ID.R's attempt there's a good chance they won't bother as it will be hard to beat.

Volkswagen is being smart by taking its race car representative of the all-electric ID range to China and amassing some serious publicity. Make no mistake, this is a publicity stunt as China has the largest electric vehicle market in the world and VW is keen to make inroads there for some of that sweet Chinese Yuan. It was also a smart move to paint the ID. R red, the Chinese color for luck and happiness, to make a statement there. Despite our cynicism though, we have no problem seeing cars hurtling up through scenery as beautiful as Tianmen Mountain.