OCTOBER 2019 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 69
New Defender
ould it be coincidence that since Land
Rover Defender production ceased in
January 2016, its maker’s fortunes have
bounced downhill like someone forgot
to engage hill-descent control? Perhaps,
but there’s no doubt the Defender
is Land Rover, and that Land Rover
needed to chop it like Samson needed
to chop his locks.
After a passenger ride and in-depth
chats with experts from both engineer-
ing and design departments, today we
bring good news and bad. The good
news is Land Rover appears to have improved the Defender dramatically.
The bad news, unfortunately, is that Land Rover appears to have improved
the Defender dramatically. The last model might have been anachronistic
- cramped, slow, dynamically shambolic – but it was also Land Rover’s
Mini, 911 or Beetle. Its debut in 1948 was the genesis of Land Rover itself,
and its flaws as it remained in continuous production became part of an
enduring appeal.
So what appear to be wholesale improvements for the new Defender
don’t guarantee success, especially among its traditional fanbase. Yet our
first-hand experience suggests there are numerous reasons to be optimis-
tic. Read on for our nine-point guide to Land Rover’s crucial new model...
1
It’s goodbye body-on-frame, goodbye Solihull
Old Defender was JLR’s only vehicle with a body-on-frame chassis.
Codenamed L663, new Defender switches to an all-aluminium mono-
coque with independent suspension. It’s derived from the D7 architecture
common to Land Rovers with longitudinal engines: Range Rover, Range
Rover Sport and Discovery. Hence double-wishbone front suspension and
the Integral Link rear axle. Both three-door 90 and five-door 110 models
are offered initially. While the 90 has standard coil springs, this is the
first Defender to be offered with air suspension, promising huge gains in
on-road composure and off-road ability. The 110 gets air as standard.
Yet it’s not simply a case of plonking a Defender body on an existing
platform, and vehicle line director Nick Collins says the architecture is
95 per cent new. ‘To deliver the breadth of capability and durability we
wanted, we developed a new vehicle architecture, called D7x [for extreme].
Changes include raising the body an additional 20mm compared with
Discovery and Range Rover, helping provide the ground clearance and
off-road geometry we wanted, but this is also the strongest and stiffest
structure we’ve ever engineered – three times stronger than body-on-frame
designs, with torsional rigidity of 30,000 Nm per degree.
Collins highlights a 3500kg towing capability, that the roof can hold up
to 300kg – you can even specify a roof tent – and that they’ve engineered
a side-opening tailgate strong enough to mount a 22-inch alloy. Both 90
and 110 wheelbases are unrelated to any other D7 vehicle (and the old-
Defender imperial measurements they’re derived from). Relocating hard-
ware including the battery, cooling circuits and spare wheel – the latter
usually slung under the body of D7 models – has helped shorten overhangs.
The Defender’s new building blocks aren’t the only shake-up. Assembly
has moved from Solihull to Slovakia, also the Discovery’s new home. ⊲
C
300kg roof load
means you can
put a tent on top
and sleep in it
Rotary/digital
climate dials
were first seen
on Velar
