26 LANDROVER MONTHLY
EXCLUSIVE NEW DEFENDER PREVIEW
model, defining the brand; it hasto
wash itsown face financiallytoo.
This sort of missionstatementcould
set alarm bells ringing – which is why
LandRover is keen to showcase just
how mucheffort it has been putting into
the newcar. And whywe find ourselves,
on a blustery summer afternoon,
standing beside oneof the protot ype
Defenders in thecar park of Jaguar
LandRover’s Ga ydon test facility. Only
a handfulof titles are being allowed
anywhere near thecar aheadof its
reveal, let alone a run in thepassenger
seat, but LandRover Monthly is one
of them.
The De fender in question isn’t
actually oneof the examples that has
toured theworld racking up more
than 750, 000 milesof dynamic anddurabilitytesting everywhere from the
Arctic Circleto South Africa. Rather it has
spent its entire lifeat Gaydon, undergoing
what LandRover charminglyrefers to as
“ExtremeEvents”. It hasbasically been
slammed into kerbstonesat acute angles,
and hurled across gaps, time after time,to
see if anything breaks.
Our guidefor the day is Andy Deeks,
Team Leader onRobustness and Durability
for the Defender project. “ExtremeEvents
sign-off ve hiclesgenerallygo throughtests
that are designedto be just shyof the
impacts thatwould set off the airbags,”
he explains. “Orat leas t, they’ re up to that
point in the Defender;some of the other
cars we’ve evaluated don’treact in the
same way.”
Is hereferringto cars from rival brands,
or other LandRovers, we ask? Andy andhis engineers giggle, thensomeone
quips: “Well, ifyou look hard enough
in the bushes hereyou’d probably find
the remainsof a Lexus that didn’t like it
very much.”
Time for some first impressions of
the still-disguised Defender, close up.
Ours is a five-door model – a 110, if
we’re to believe the spec sheets that
leaked on the internet recently. It is
also clearly powered by a petrol engine,
judgingby the relative lackof diesel
clatter as it sits idling in the Gaydon
car park.
And while there’s a bigsticker on
the windscreentelling us that it is
a ‘HYBRID’,we can’t make out any
additional charging flaps under the
complexcamouflage. So it’s probablya
4 volt mild-hybrid instead of the PHEV