Background
Land Rover. Today it’s a luxury car brand for people who like to sit as high as an HGV driver and have four-wheel-drive on the M25. But back in the day, it was a proper utility vehicle. The Defender followed a long line of Land Rovers going right back to, would you believe, 1948. You could drive it around the London orbital if you wanted, or just cut straight across the middle.
Following the 1989 introduction of the Land Rover Discovery, the term Land Rover became the name of a broader marque, and so it no longer worked as the name of a specific model. To tidy up this self-inflicted mess, in 1990 Land Rover renamed the 90 and 110 as the Defender 90 and Defender 110 respectively. A new legend was born.
Although the Defender was certainly not a new design it did incorporate significant changes compared with the earlier Series Land Rovers. A major development was coil sprung axles at either end, improving the ride dramatically over the leaf sprung Series models.
The new Defender offered both better ride quality and improved axle articulation. Adding a lockable centre differential to the transfer case gave the Defender permanent (on-road) four-wheel-drive capability. Both changes were derived from the Range Rover, and the interiors were also modernised.
On the vehicle’s outside the new model featured a full-length bonnet and full-width integrated grille and headlights, combined with (at last!) a single-piece windscreen. Widened wheel arches covered new, wider-track axles. Initially Defenders retained a part-time 4WD system, as on previous models, but this option was dropped in 1984.
While the engine was carried over from the Series III, a new series of modern and more powerful engines was progressively introduced.
The best of these is the five cylinder 2.5-litre turbo diesel – or Td5 in Land Rover speak. The torquey new powerplant gave the vehicle the grunt and off-road capability that made it a must-have for farmers, explorers and the military the world over – US Special Forces used Defenders, not Humvees.
Such is the Defender’s lasting appeal that when Land Rover finally pulled the production plug in 2016, UK born businessman Jim Ratcliffe decided to develop a new ‘Defender’ called the Grenadier, and originally announced it would be built in the UK, before eventually moving planned production to France.
Of course, Land Rover themselves build a Defender today. You’ll see plenty on the M25, but as far as we’re aware, the British Army hasn’t bought any. Mind you, the army’s Defenders were nothing like as posh as this one, which has been treated to just about every imaginable upgrade going.
