2023 Land Rover Defender V8 SVR Looks Happy To See Us, Lifts a Wheel on the ‘Ring

Land Rover is working on a Defender V8 in SVR specification, and our spy photographers have caught one example as it was driven on the Nürburgring. While it may be unusual to think of an off-roader with a powerful V8 engine to be driven on the ‘Ring, we have seen truly unusual vehicles on the world’s most demanding track.

Now, back to the matter at hand, it appears that someone has bothered to camouflage the body of this Defender V8 SVR as if nobody could identify it once they were done. As an old Windows error once wrote, “Task failed successfully.”

Moving on, you can observe that there is something off with this Defender, as it comes with massive fender flares, as well as large alloy wheels. The latter has a design that conceals the brake rotors and calipers with ease, which means that Land Rover can hide just about any kind of stopping power behind those less than beautiful alloy wheels.

In case you have any doubts, this vehicle is going to need all the stopping power it can get, as it is supposed to have a twin-turbo V8 under its hood, except North of 500 horsepower on tap, with some sources claiming as much as 600 horsepower.

If you know a bit of physics, you just require a bit of imagination to figure out that this vehicle will be fast off the line, and that it will be able to reach speeds that were previously unimaginable for a stock Defender. Those velocities are also unnatural for a vehicle with this shape, size, and claimed purpose in life, but here we are.

Massive brakes should be standard for the Defender V8 SVR, and those wheels do an excellent job of hiding them. The Nürburgring’s corners will put them to the test, while the suspension will also have a lot of work to do. That is when the wider track comes into play, and new tires will come with this version from the factory.

Although this prototype is based on the Defender 110, you should expect to see the V8 SVR variant in Defender 90 bodies as well. There is no word on a Defender 130 V8, but that would be another matter.

If enough wealthy people call up their Land Rover dealers, all hands might be on deck for this. After all, we are writing about the Special Vehicle Rating division.