FIRST DRIVES
LAND ROVER DEFENDER 130 V8
The Defender’s extremes of size and propulsion are combined to create a monster
TESTED 4.12.23, SOMERSET ON SALE NOW
TESTER’S NOTE
The 130 V8 arrives alongside the rough-and-ready Outbound variant, which uses a diesel straight six and swaps the rearmost seats for a van-esque panel-sided boot of a huge 1329 litres.
FP
There’s something delightfully naughty about all of this. You get the sense, given the general trajectory of the market and prevailing public opinion, that something this large and loutish shouldn’t really exist in 2023.
This hulking, imposing Goliath, all 2670kg, 5000cc and 5358mm of it, arrives as the latest in a long line of mammoth-engined, go-anywhere apocalypse wagons from Land Rover – a brand that in less than 12 months will be selling its first electric car. How’s that for diversity?
The 130 V8 takes the Defender name into hitherto untapped territory, not just in terms of its heft and presence but also in its positioning in the heartland of the sporting luxury SUV sector – where it contends obviously with the Mercedes-AMG G63 but also indirectly with other V8 behemoths like the Audi RS Q8 and certain flavours of Porsche Cayenne.