The newest Defender in Land Rover’s four-wheeled infantry is right here – and it’s fairly one thing.
Ever because it was introduced final summer season, there’s been an infinite buzz across the Land Rover Defender OCTA. And understandably so: it’s an SUV with a 635 horsepower, 4.4 litre, twin-turbo V8 engine that does 0-to-60 in 3.8-seconds, has a high pace of 155 mph and packs a large 750 Nm of peak torque. However it feels just like the hype across the new automobile isn’t merely all the way down to its spectacular on-paper specs – nor even due to the £160,800 GBP ($167,900 USD) price ticket you’ll discover on an “Version One” mannequin. Moderately, 5 years on from the Defender’s 2020 relaunch, the Defender OCTA appears to mark a completely new chapter in Land Rover’s many years lengthy lore – a narrative began in 1948 in the course of England the place it stays anchored to today, bolstered by over 114,000 annual Defender gross sales.
In latest weeks, these fortunate sufficient to name themselves new homeowners of Land Rover’s newest automobile have started taking supply of their autos – an unique bunch that features Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, whose new OCTA bears his “Dubai 1” license plate. And this new OCTA proprietor membership actually is an unique one: whereas, as a bunch, Jaguar Land Rover sells over 500,000 automobiles a 12 months, its new Defender’s contribution to that is set to be fractional – within the UK, for instance, the corporate is capping the overall variety of OCTAs made to simply 1,070 for the primary 12 months of its manufacturing.
Once more, it’s comprehensible when you concentrate on it: the 2025 Land Rover Defender OCTA isn’t your common SUV. It’s most likely honest to say that it isn’t your common Land Rover Defender. In growth for over three years, the OCTA was “subjected to essentially the most excessive testing and growth programme in Defender historical past,” in accordance with Land Rover, with the corporate’s engineers placing it by means of “13,960 extra checks” on high of the prevailing “customary Defender testing regime”.
Certainly, the OCTA was designed to take Land Rover’s off-road credentials into solely new territory and, after driving it, the whole lot begins to make sense. Just lately, over just a few hours throughout an unlimited stretch of moist and rugged terrain within the Scottish countryside, Hypebeast put the Defender OCTA by means of its paces and it dealt with the whole lot we threw at it with grace and with ease. The panorama, undulating beneath us all through giant components of our check drive, ought to have turned us into momentary bobbleheads, bouncing round contained in the automobile’s 5 doorways. However it didn’t. The OCTA, which options an extremely responsive 6D Dynamics air suspension system, continually adjusted to make sure a comparatively easy and bump-free trip on an typically tough and uneven course.
Picture: Felix Younger/Hypebeast
Picture: Felix Younger/Hypebeast
Picture: Felix Younger/Hypebeast
Picture: Felix Younger/Hypebeast
Picture: Felix Younger/Hypebeast
Picture: Felix Younger/Hypebeast
The wintery Scottish panorama additionally supplied ample alternatives to check the the automobile’s completely different drive applications – and switching between these was seamless. From utilizing the “Mud Ruts” program to climb a steep, slippery hill, earlier than switching to “Wade” to navigate a physique of water that coated most of automobile’s 33-inch tires, the OCTA was in a position to modify the whole lot from wheel top to suspension with the faucet of a button. This helped to ship an extremely easy drive all through, an expertise seemingly aided by the peace of thoughts supplied by the OCTA’s effectivity. In comparison with some other Land Rover up to now, the OCTA options significantly better axle articulation and a better tolerance for off-road driving, and it matches this agility with uncooked energy and pace.
So, what else do you get for its six-figure sticker worth? The OCTA is essentially the most highly effective Defender within the automobile’s 75 12 months historical past, with Land Rover sourcing its 4.4 litre V8 from BMW – however the OCTA isn’t Land Rover’s solely automobile with this engine. Among the many many options that units it aside is the appropriately named “OCTA Mode”, which – activated with a single lengthy press of the brand button on the steering wheel – acts like a Tremendous Mario power-up mushroom for the automobile. It’s virtually as if the OCTA was designed to be the final automobile you’d ever want, , when you wanted one to outlive an apocalypse.
It’s not clear whether or not JLR meant to create the quickest off-road car, or essentially the most off-road succesful quick automobile. What is evident, although, is that the Defender OCTA is each of these items and extra: an ideal marriage of pace and manoeuvrability that mixes the efficiency and management wanted to be a real, working utility car with all of the options and facilities you’d need anticipate in pure automotive luxurious.
The Land Rover Defender OCTA is out there now with costs beginning at £145,300 GBP / $152,000 USD.
