The fastest and toughest Land Rover Defender ever

Like the recent Range Rover Sport SV, the Defender OCTA rides on hydraulically interlinked suspension that does away with anti-roll bars, not unlike a McLaren supercar. Here the hydraulics control pitch and dive as well as body roll. I’ve felt the system at work from the passenger seat in the SV and it really is remarkable – the combination of ride comfort, body control and roll resistance is unmatched in this sort of car.

Power, sent to all four corners, comes from a BMW-sourced 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 that produces 626bhp and up to 590lb ft of torque, while the gearbox is an eight-speed automatic. Based on the 110 variant of the Defender, the OCTA will reach 60mph in 3.8 seconds, topping out at 155mph.

You know as well as I do that most of these cars will pull away from the dealership forecourt and head straight for the nearest city centre, high street or shopping district – anywhere their drivers might be spotted. You’ll never see one anywhere in the vicinity of Dakar (and not just because the rally is now based in Saudi Arabia).

Nevertheless, I quite admire Land Rover for doing its own thing with this car – it could so easily have dropped the ride height, fitted coil springs you could crawl through and anti-roll bars as thick as your arm, slapped on a set of sticky summer tyres and flogged as many as it could make, like everybody else. Instead, it built something (more or less) unique.

Order books are open now with prices starting from £145,300. I can’t wait to see one on Knightsbridge.

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