The old Land Rover Defender may have waved goodbye in 2016 but Land Rover is injecting a bit of life back into the classic 4×4 with a new model. It’s catchily named the ‘Classic Defender V8 by Works Bespoke’ – with the work being undertaken by the Land Rover Classic commissioning service that allows clients to specify a fully restored Classic Defender V8 with an “extended choice of materials, interior and exterior colour combinations, finishes, accessories, and upgrades”.
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Pricing for the Land Rover Classic Defender V8 by Works Bespoke kicks off at £190,000 for the four-seat 90 and £199,000 for the five-seat 110 – the seven-seat 110 is offered from £204,000 with all prices excluding VAT.
While that might be a significant chunk more expensive than the current range-topping Defender Octa, Land Rover says every Classic Defender V8 by Works Bespoke undergoes hundreds of hours of “painstaking work” by its expert Land Rover Classic engineers. The donor vehicles chosen for the restoration were built from 2012 to 2016 and all are “remastered from the ground up”.
Customers have a wide array of choice to personalise the exterior of their Classic Defender, with selections from Land Rover’s Heritage, Contemporary, Premium or ‘SV Metallic paint finishes. There’s also a choice of 16-inch steel wheels or 18-inch alloys and a slew of accessories including side steps, a roof rack, an ‘expedition cage’, a ladder and if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, a winch. A camper conversion is also available for the rear space in the cabin. For the full off-road look, there’s a set of roof-mounted spotlights or an LED light bar, while the headlights can also be upgraded to modern LEDs.
Further customisation comes to the interior where there are also tweaks to make the Classic Defender “as user-friendly as possible”, according to Land Rover. The leather on the seats, side trim, doors, roof lining and dash can be specified in ‘Caraway’, ‘Liberty Blue’, and ‘Garnet’ colours, plus there’s an option of Recaro bucket seats, too. In the centre of the dash you’ll find a 3.5-inch touchscreen with a Land Rover Classic Infotainment System (similar to Porsche’s PCCM unit), adding sat-nav, DAB radio and Bluetooth.
The Classic Defender V8 by Works Bespoke follows the same mechanical setup previously seen on the Land Rover Classic Islay Edition and Trophy vehicles. That means a 5.0-litre V8 sending 410bhp and 515Nm of torque through an eight-speed automatic transmission for a very un-Defender-like 5.9-second 0-60mph time (6.1 seconds for the 110 model). It’s not just extra power impacting the driving experience though, because ‘performance-focused’ four-piston brake calipers with larger discs and revised suspension have been added, too.
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