It’s been re-engineered as a limited-run special for 2018 by Land Rover Classic, the company arm that brings back to life heritage models from the firm’s past. With a 400bhp V8, leather-lined cabin and £150,000 price tag, the new Defender Works V8 70th Edition revealed today (17 January) is the company’s ultimate iteration of a model that can trace its heritage back to the first Land Rover of 1948.
Under the bonnet is a normally-aspirated 5.0-litre V8 which, working with an eight-speed automatic, delivers not only a booming soundtrack (check out the video) and sport mode but also 0-60mph in just 5.6 seconds. At 400bhp the Works V8 has more than three times the power of the last regular production Defender.
The final production Defenders were powered by five and then four-cylinder diesels, but V8s are nothing new to the model, with the venerable Rover 3.5 lump installed in Series III models from 1979. And, foretelling today’s new version, in 1998 there was a V8-powered special edition to mark the model’s 50th anniversary.
Land Rover Classic says the car has been re-engineered to make this new version, with uprated brakes and a handling kit of new springs, dampers and anti-roll bars. The wheels are 18-inch diamond-turned Sawtooth alloys wearing 265/65 R18 all-terrain tyres.