Land Rover expert Overfinch has announced its latest venture. Overfinch Heritage will take 25-year-old Defenders and modify them for the road.
The company is limiting itself to just 12 Heritage Defenders for 2021. It says that’s not just to keep the rarity up, but that it also reflects the amount of work going into each new vehicle.
Each restomod Defender comes with a new crate engine and transmission, as well as a number of modifications to enhance the driving experience. Plus, you’ll get Overfinch’s distinctive styling.
“Overfinch Heritage will address a major opportunity to satisfy the demand for restomod Land Rover vehicles in North America,” said Alex Sloane, VP Overfinch North America. “Remastering allows us to create enhancements and proprietary Overfinch upgrades that simply wouldn’t have featured in the classic production car.”
The process of modifying these Land Rovers has already begun with meticulously selected Defenders. Overfinch says that it will start to deliver them in April, but that if you have a Defender of your own that meets their requirements, they can modify that, too.
“We intend for our customers to create something truly personal, while guiding them to retain the classically British character of the original vehicle,” said Sloane. “Our pedigree, as the originator of after-market Range Rover tuning, can be traced back to 1975. We understand the importance of maintaining the integrity of these British icons.”
The history of the Defender is a bit twisty, but what we commonly call the Defender has been around since the early ’80s. Known simply as the Land Rover 90 or 110 at the start of its life, the arrival of the Discovery meant that it needed a model name.
The first “Defender” was produced in 1990 and it came with a variety of engines ranging from BMW I6s to Rover V8s to inline 4 turbodiesels. What engine Overfinch intends to put at the heart of its Heritage Defender has not been made explicit, though we imagine that Overfinch will work with customers to make their dreams come true.
Classic Land Rover Defenders are quite rare and have gained a cult following in the US.
The 2020 Land Rover Defender is the first new Defender to be sold here from the factory since 1997.
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Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since a new Land Rover Defender arrived on US shores.
But for the first time since 1997, we finally get a fully federalized, fully road-legal Defender straight from Land Rover itself. You no longer have to wait for the 25-year import rule to expire or hit up a customization shop to get your hands on a Defender, and that in itself is a relief.
The 2020 Defender still retains the original’s boxy shape, but much of what made a Defender a Defender has been smoothed and ironed out to befit a brand that no longer uses military surplus to build cars. You’ll notice a sleeker face and larger dimensions. Electronic seats. A heated steering wheel. Fancy air suspension mon Dieu.
From the driver’s seat, the only way you’d be able to tell you were driving a Defender is by reading the name stamped across the steering wheel. But I’ll let you in on a little secret: The original Defender is bad! I’ve driven it.
The new one? It’s good.
The 2020 Defender 110: Out with the old
The Defender legacy began in 1983 with the Defender 90 and Defender 110, their numbers a reference to the size of their wheelbases – or the length of the space between the centers of a vehicle’s front and rear wheels.
1995 Land Rover Defender 90.Land Rover
Defenders didn’t come to the US until 1993 and left just as abruptly in 1997 because they couldn’t meet our safety standards. (Specifically, they lacked airbags and side-impact door protection.) As a result, the trucks were little-known and rare, becoming a kind of a hidden gem for fans and enthusiasts.
Regardless of US regulations, though, Defender production kept right up until 2016. Following that came the current Defender for the 2020 model year, finally available to buyers in the US.
Details and safety ratings: A straight-six smooth as silk
The 2020 Defender starts at $46,100 and comes with two engine options. My loaner, a Defender 110 SE, started at $62,250 and landed at $72,780 with options and fees.
The first engine option is a turbocharged, 2.0-liter four-cylinder, good for a claimed 296 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. The second, which is what my loaner came with, is a mild-hybrid, turbocharged and supercharged 3.0-liter straight-six, good for a claimed 395 horsepower and 406 pound- feet of torque.
Both engines are hooked up to a slick eight-speed ZF automatic transmission. There’s also permanent four-wheel drive and locking differentials, making the Defender as legit as any serious off-roader
And while the new 110 won’t offer rear bench seats like the old one famously did, you can option it with a three-person bench seat in the front, which is quite rad. Excitingly, the two-door 2020 Defender 90 will also be available here for the 2021 model year.
What stands out: Driving on stilts
Surpassing the original Defender – a rough, utilitarian thing – is a low bar, but it’s a bar nonetheless. To the surprise of no one, the new Defender passes it with flying colors, although it’s a bit like saying Usain Bolt runs faster than I do.
Immediately, you’ll notice a crispness to the way the 110 drives, one that seems at odds with its 5,000-pound curb weight. The throttle response is immediate, agile, and light. There’s good low-end power, lending to the truck’s smooth power delivery. This is certainly due to the help of that mild hybrid system.
As an added bonus, acceleration is accompanied by a throaty straight-six exhaust rasp, a delightful reminder of the old BMW straight-six engines. Steering feel is also vastly improved over the original truck’s. It feels responsive and modern.
Because of the Defender’s tall stance, you, in turn, sit tall as well. I felt like I was a half- to a whole head taller than everyone else on the road. People driving Honda Pilots only came up to my chest. I was practically sitting on the roofs of Toyota Camrys.
It was a great vantage point from which to observe the road, because hardly anything blocked my view – though, of course, I did become a big obstacle for everyone else to see around. You win some and you lose some, folks.
But driving the Defender over low traction surfaces – in this case ice and snow – is where it really shines. There, you get a sense of absolute tankiness, a sense of powerful unstoppability. It was ice and snow I’d eye nervously if I was in my C-Class sedan, but the Defender marched right over it like it was a minor puddle after a spring shower.
For me personally, these feelings were validated when I happened upon my friend who’d gotten his Porsche Boxster stuck in a snowdrift because it didn’t have enough ground clearance. (He dug it out eventually, don’t worry.)
What falls short: Busy screen
I didn’t love the feel of the plastics in the Defender. They just didn’t respond to my touch with the solidity that I’d expect from a truck that starts at more than $60,000 in the 110 SE trim I was testing, although I will say that the door handles and parts of the dash were wrapped in a cool wetsuit-like polyurethane material that seems like it would be very easy to clean if it got dirty.
My first impression of the infotainment system was one of being overwhelmed. There were so many menu items, all presented on one menu. The navigation, phone connection, and music were conveniently located off to the side, but the system also presented seat and climate options alongside its valet mode, eco data, wade sensing, and vehicle dimensions. These, I felt, could have been tucked into some other menu folder to reduce clutter.
I also got the distinct sense that I was not the correctly shaped person Land Rover had in mind when designing the new Defender. If you’ve ever sat in an original Defender, you’d know that the cabin is actually quite cramped and narrow. For me, it was nearly perfectly scaled.
With this new Defender, I felt like Goldilocks sitting in Papa Bear’s chair: the seat was too long and kept hitting me in the back of my calves so that my legs were never comfortable in the footwell. (And before you ask, no, there is no adjustment for this part of the seat. I checked.)
Even the visibility worked against me. Rear visibility is already quite bad, but even with the seat raised up as high as it would go, I still found the wing mirrors positioned directly in my line of sight, blocking pedestrians crossing intersections.
At least there are a myriad of cameras all over the truck. They make the otherwise impossible task of parking possible.
How the new Defender compares to its competitors: Mid-tier pricing
The Defender shone during high speed cruising. It held to highway speeds just fine. The ride quality at 120 kph was no different than if we were going 40 kph. And because the Defender’s cameras provided such a comprehensive 360-degree view of its surroundings, I wasn’t terrified of navigating it through tight parking lots.
I could easily see myself using it as an everyday SUV. The low-traction stability was just an added bonus.
Through that lens, the $62,000 price tag makes sense. Though the inside of the Defender’s trunk was lined in a rubbery plastic – easy to clean if you put something muddy back there, like a dog – this is still a truck for a luxury buyer. One who might want to get it dirty only sometimes. I also suspect that for those who won’t ever take it overlanding, the mere knowledge that it won’t get stuck off-road is enough.
People liked the original Defender because it was ratty and bad. No creature comforts to speak of. There was an honesty to that. This new Defender is upscale, comfortable, and doesn’t punish you for committing the crime of being tall.
Not that Land Rover didn’t try and capture some of the old truck’s ruggedness, of course. There are fake diamond-plate inserts on the hood and exposed bolts all over the interior that may or may not be functional. The trunk is still accessible via a side-hinged swinging door. With “Defender” stamped all over the place, it sort of felt like the new truck was playing dress-up as the old truck.
But a name is just a name. There’s no rule saying that the thing the name represents cannot change and take on a new definition. Well, maybe there’s a rule if you’re a purist. Nevertheless, it seems like Land Rover took a stab at broader appeal here.
Land Rover makes luxury SUVs now. It can’t get away with selling people rickety bits of farming equipment anymore. But in a portfolio of only luxury SUVs, how is it supposed to differentiate yet another luxury SUVs to the public?
Easy. Lean on the storied Defender name, which carries a cult following mired in nostalgia. The most powerful kind of cult following.
I personally couldn’t care less what Land Rover calls the new truck. You shouldn’t either. It’s objectively nice. But for luxury buyers stuck on the idea and heritage of a Defender – and who also can’t square with a lack of amenities – the new Defender is perfect.
If anything, Osprey Custom Cars’ custom builds are some of the best money can buy.
Despite looking like a well-preserved classic Land Rover Defender 90, this one was built from the ground up. It sports a modern chassis with suspension and brake upgrades, skid plates, steel bumpers and Kahn 18-inch alloy wheels shod in chunky off-road rubber.
Finished in Santorini Black, it features LED headlights and DRLs in the front bumper, a full-size spare at the back, a canvas soft top and a satin black powder-coated roll bar. There’s also a new front grille and a Puma-spec bonnet.
This Defender is powered by a 5.3-liter LS V8 that produces 325 horsepower and 330 pound-feet (447 Nm) of torque, driving all four wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission with transfer case.
Inside, there’s black leather upholstery, heated front seats, four inward-facing jump seats in the load area, air conditioning, 7-inch infotainment system from Alpine with Bluetooth, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, reversing camera, power windows, JL audio, LED ambient lighting, Momo steering wheel and a TDCI-spec dash with stock gauges.
Custom Defenders do not come cheap, though, and this Defender 90 will set you back almost $130,000. The new-gen model, on the other hand, starts from $46,100 in the U.S. – but we guess that’s comparing apples to oranges.
The generic British farmer is supposedly the prime target for the Land Rovers Defender, or at least that’s how it’s been with the off-roader’s previous generation. So, after hearing what automotive journalists and YouTube influencers think of the new model, how about listening to the opinion of those it was created for?
Well, to be fair, Harry is a bit of all three combined. He’s one of the people who founded the world-renowned British car magazine “evo” back in 1998, so he’s got the journalist part covered. He runs not one but two YouTube channels (maybe even more that we don’t know about) with a combined 500k subscribers, so he’s a decently sized YouTube figure. Finally, Harry owns a 2,000-acre (810-hectare) farm where he grows things like wheat and rapeseed, so he qualifies as a farmer too.
He also appears to be James May’s long-lost relative, sharing the same tone of voice, inflections, and accent as the more famous Grand Tour co-presenter. So, what that all means is he’s knowledgeable and pleasant to listen to, which is more than anyone could ever ask.
On to the 2021 Land Rover Defender (a pretty highly-specced P400 110, in this case, though not the HSE), you won’t be surprised to hear that Harry quite likes it. He owns a Series One Land Rover and a Range Rover, so, as you’d expect from a British farmer and car enthusiast, he’s no stranger to Land Rover products.
That means he can appreciate a good one when he sees it, and he seems to think the new Defender qualifies as such. Like so many people before him, though, Harry too is baffled by the price tag. Granted, you can have the Defender in a lower trim level and with a simpler, two-liter gasoline turbocharged engine (this one has a straight-six turbo with mild hybrid technology), which would lower the price, but as it stands, the SUV can easily go over the $100,000 milestone.
As Harry puts it, that’s more than a Discovery and damn near close to a Range Rover Sport. And all from what was once the brand’s workhorse. Well, we should get used to the fact it’s now become Land Rover’s workunicorn and just get over it. Harry seems to have. He’s planning on getting one to replace his Range Rover, but he’s waiting for the D300 diesel hybrid.
The 2021 Dakar Rally is just around the corner and the new Land Rover Defender will be present, sadly not to race but to support the efforts of the Prodrive-backed Bahrain Raid XTreme team, or BRX for short.
A pair of production-spec Defender 110 P400 models will act as support vehicles for the BRX team, who will enter the iconic race with nine-time World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb and two-time Dakar Rally winner Nani Roma.
BRX’s Land Rover Defenders will be driven on the definition of extreme conditions, traversing desert dunes, mud, and rocks, carrying vital supplies and equipment, as well as the team’s crew who will camp, eat, and sleep in them across the Dakar Rally’s 12 stages.
“Land Rover has a unique Dakar pedigree having won the inaugural event in 1979, and the rally remains the ultimate all-terrain endurance test,” said Finbar McFall, Jaguar Land Rover Customer Experience Director. “While the Defenders won’t be competing, they will have a vital role in supporting the team as they navigate their way across thousands of miles of punishing desert terrain. The fact these vehicles are unmodified is testimony to the intrinsic capability and durability of our legendary 4×4, which has undergone the most demanding engineering test and development programme in our history.”
Land Rover says that the two Defenders are showroom-standard, finished in Indus Silver, and featuring the mild-hybrid 3.0-liter Ingenium straight-six engine with 394 HP (400 PS). The cars are fitted with factory options like the Explorer Pack, which includes the Expedition Roof Rack, Raised Air Intake, wheel arch protection, and the Exterior Side-Mounted Gear Carrier, as well as a deployable roof ladder that provides access to a roof box.
“The crew need to know our support vehicles will be able to carry all of the necessary kit and be relied upon to get to the next service location, whatever the conditions,” said Paul Howorth, Bahrain Raid XTreme Team Principal. “New Defender provides a unique combination of all-terrain performance, rugged practicality, and comfort – a crucial combination for the unpredictable Dakar conditions and after long days behind the wheel.”
“Land Rover has a unique Dakar pedigree having won the inaugural event in 1979, and the rally remains the ultimate all-terrain endurance test,” said Finbar McFall, Jaguar Land Rover Customer Experience Director. “While the Defenders won’t be competing, they will have a vital role in supporting the team as they navigate their way across thousands of miles of punishing desert terrain. The fact these vehicles are unmodified is testimony to the intrinsic capability and durability of our legendary 4×4, which has undergone the most demanding engineering test and development programme in our history.”
Land Rover says that the two Defenders are showroom-standard, finished in Indus Silver, and featuring the mild-hybrid 3.0-liter Ingenium straight-six engine with 394 HP (400 PS). The cars are fitted with factory options like the Explorer Pack, which includes the Expedition Roof Rack, Raised Air Intake, wheel arch protection, and the Exterior Side-Mounted Gear Carrier, as well as a deployable roof ladder that provides access to a roof box.
“The crew need to know our support vehicles will be able to carry all of the necessary kit and be relied upon to get to the next service location, whatever the conditions,” said Paul Howorth, Bahrain Raid XTreme Team Principal. “New Defender provides a unique combination of all-terrain performance, rugged practicality, and comfort – a crucial combination for the unpredictable Dakar conditions and after long days behind the wheel.”
