Land Rover celebrates its 70th anniversary with the new Defender Works V8

Just when we thought the Defender was a goner, Land Rover has performed the most high-profile resurrection since Jon Snow’s. Well, kinda. Land Rover stopped selling the famous model a few years ago, but as 2018 sees the marque turn 70(!), it has decided to bring it back – albeit with a limited run – in the shape of the Defender Works V8. Fitted with a 5.0-litre naturally-aspirated V8 powertrain, the special edition produces 400bhp, giving it a 0-60 acceleration in 5.6 seconds. It tops out at 106mph, making it nippier than a vehicle of this size has any right to be. The engines in the 150 re-engineered cars Land Rover is building are paired with an eight-speed ZF auto ‘box, that (brilliantly) includes a sport mode. Chuck in uprated brakes, a handling kit, and Bi-LED headlights, and you can see why it’s going to be very hard of both the 90 (£150,000) and 110 (even more dosh) variants when they go on sale.

Matt Tate Contributor

About

I'm fascinated by all things tech, but if you were going to leave me on a desert island, I'd probably ask for my Nintendo Switch, a drone, and a pair of noise-cancelling cans to block out the relentless seagull racket. When I'm not on Stuff duty you'll probably find me subscribing to too many podcasts, playing too many video games, or telling anyone who will listen that Spurs are going to win a trophy this season.

Areas of expertise

Video games, VR, smartwatches, headphones, smart speakers, bizarre Kickstarter campaigns