Review: Land Rover Defender V8
What is it?
If you’ve been around green ovals for as long as me, you’ll know that this new model builds on decades of Land Rover V8 heritage, from Golden Rod (Land Rover’s US importer’s experiment back in 1966), to the Stage I V8 that began production in 1979. Then of course there was the NAS (North American Specification) models of the nineties, the Defender 50th, and more recently, the powerful Defender Works V8.
The new Defender V8 is, however, the quickest of the bunch. Available in both 90 and 110 body styles, it has Land Rover’s potent 5.0-litre V8 supercharged petrol engine, which produces 525bhp, 625Nm of torque and drives through an 8-speed automatic transmission.
On the road
With the aforementioned 525bhp, the 90 it will catapult you from 0-60mph in just 5.1 seconds, but it feels much quicker, and will happily carry on to a top speed of 149mph - I’m told.
To cope with the extra oomph, Land Rover has toughened up the Defender’s chassis and suspension and given it larger diameter anti-roll bars, stiffer suspension bushes and bespoke spring and damper rates. There’s also a new electronic active rear diff and a ‘Dynamic’ mode for the terrain response system, this unlocks more performance on tarmac and loose surfaces. Yeah, like it needs more performance!
No matter where you’re going and what style of driving you have, the 8-speed automatic ‘box feels like a match made in heaven, and if you want an extra bit of control, or simply feeling playful, the flappy paddle software has been tweaked to enable slightly quicker changes.
The new Defender, no matter what’s under the bonnet, is still a large car, and throwing it around corners will induce body roll, and despite the extra suspension tweaks, the V8 is no different.
Having said that, it handles better than you imagine it would. With this in mind Land Rover is keen to point out that this is not one of its Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) products, so isn’t supposed to be stiff and hard riding, instead it’s been designed to be a comfortable cruiser first and everything else second. And that’s something I can definitely concur.
Although the speed and acceleration are addictive, simply burbling around is as equally satisfying, especially listening to the V8 symphony - it’s quite intoxicating.
Official figures state that it gulps fuel at a rate of up to 19.5mpg, but on a 300 mile round trip to Grimsthorpe Castle, the best mpg I got was 25.2, though I couldn’t document it as I was driving. The average for long motorway stretches was 24mpg, and tootling around the borough I’d get 18mpg. Seriously though, that’s not bad for a 5.0 litre supercharged V8 in the shape of a smoothed brick.
As a side note, the following week I had a long wheelbase Wrangler Rubicon with a roof top tent, and all it could muster on the motorway was 21mpg.
Off road
It’s still a Defender, and what Land Rover don’t know about 4x4 tech isn’t really worth knowing.
Despite being a bit nervous and trying not to damage the huge 22” rims, I managed to take the V8 along a few gnarly lanes, and it walked them - as you would expect. A wheel high in the air? No problem. Two wheels in the air? Ha, easy peasy lemon squeezy!
As you will have read in previous issues, I’ve driven both the 90 and 110 Defender along many of the tracks around Eastnor Castle - but to take it along a few challenging green lanes is a different matter altogether.
Raise the air suspension and you have heaps of clearance - with no low hanging diffs to worry about either.
However, with air suspension on full lift there isn’t much in the way of articulation, but the Terrain Response system does a fantastic job of working things out in no time at all.
As I’ve mentioned in previous reports, I find the 3D Surround Cameras work incredibly well, especially the ones under the door mirrors that show the front tyres, they’re brilliantly effective at showing what’s in front, and at the side of the vehicle.
The Defender has heaps of other ‘off-road’ tech up its sleeve like the wade sensing feature that calculates the depth of water adjacent to the vehicle. The touchscreen displays the results along with the maximum wading depth.
Interior
When it comes to the interior, the only sign you’ve just spent the best part of £100k are the V8 badges on the sills and flappy paddles, the rest is like every other model, but this isn’t really a bad thing, as jumping into the new Defender still makes me smile, it’s totally unique, and I love its up-to-date nod to Defenders of old.
Despite hard wearing and washable panels, its still a classy place to be, and the driving position is stately and typical of the brand. When it comes to cubby space, I honestly can’t imagine anyone using up all the space that’s available, it’s such a practical design.
Like any three door vehicle, clambering into the back can be a bit of a fuss, which isn’t helped by having to wait for the motor to move the front seats forward - I timed them at around 15 seconds.
However, once in the back rear seat passengers not only have a huge amount of leg room and visibility, but with USB ports embedded in the front seats, it’s a surprisingly comfortable place to be.
In the boot you get just under 400 litres, which is enough to fit my rather cumbersome Peli 1640 Protector case. Unfortunately the rear seats don’t fold completely flat, which can be a bit of nuisance if you want to carry large items, like a fridge, and so on.
When it comes to spec you’re not sold short as all Defenders come with LED headlights, heated front seats and Land Rover’s 10” Pivi Pro infotainment set-up with apple CarPlay and Android. The adaptive cruise control helped take some of the strain out of interminable motorway journeys and certainly helps to achieve the best fuel economy.
Although a few people I know don’t get along with ClearSight digital rear-view mirror, I love it and used it all the time. ClearSight uses a camera in one of the roof-mounted fins to show what’s behind, and gives a wide-angled view via the rear-view mirror.
Conclusion
Shoehorning V8s into Land Rovers is nothing new, as well as the aforementioned special editions from Solihull, owners have been doing it since Adam was a lad, from the earliest Series 1 to the most battered Lightweight. I remember quite fondly my old V8 hybrid, it was awesome off-road, and the standard 3.5 litre carb-fed V8 gave it real on-road ability, which was lacking in the ‘olden’ days!
Overall I enjoyed every second behind the wheel of the V8, except for the times I had to pull into petrol station forecourts to top it up - again! But with a starting price of £98,575, it’s clearly aimed at more affluent clientele. That said, it doesn’t matter which model of Defender you choose to go for, a full order book means that you will have to join a rather large queue.
