I’m sure you remember the hullabaloo that heralded the arrival of the ‘new’ Land Rover Defender in 2020. Few cars have sparked such a mix of derision and excitement. For every purist who lamented the loss of a ladder chassis, the price hike and the appearance of luxuries such as space for your right elbow, there were others who championed its modern engineering and more refined styling.
The fact that Land Rover die-hards have barely raised an eyebrow at the new Defender OCTA – despite its 635bhp twin-turbo V8 and £146,000 price tag – shows just how much perceptions have shifted since those heated debates. Over the past five years, the hardcore fanbase has had plenty of time to move through the stages of grief, from denial and anger to full-on acceptance. And it likely helps that the car many believed the Defender should have been – the INEOS Grenadier – has remained a niche proposition.
Having said all that, when JLR’s press release about the OCTA landed in my inbox in 2024, I couldn’t help but wonder: “Has Land Rover strayed too far from the Defender’s roots?” “Does a V8-powered performance off-roader really make sense in these environmentally conscious times?” And, crucially: “Does the world need another performance SUV?”
An invitation to the Defender OCTA’s UK media launch in the Scottish Borders promised answers.
At first glance, shoving a twin-turbocharged V8 – borrowed from the Range Rover Sport SV – into a Defender seems about as logical as strapping a jet engine to a four-poster bed. After all, the Defender isn’t a road-biased SUV like the Range Rover Sport, it’s a genuine off-roader, designed with priorities that fundamentally contradict performance-car dynamics: a lofty centre of gravity, a towering driving position and a lardy 2585kg kerbweight.
JLR’s engineers, then, clearly had their work cut out. Not only did they need to bless the OCTA with supercar-bothering performance – 0-60mph in just 3.8 seconds, with a top speed limited to 155mph, if you’re interested – but they also had to make the handling and braking good enough to avoid terrifying whoever is driving it. And, of course, the newcomer still had to perform like a Defender off-road. Quite the conundrum.
Launching the OCTA in the Scottish Borders was as punchy as the car’s list price – particularly when the Land Rover PRs were keen to point out that these very roads, with their myriad crests, cambers, twists and turns, honed the talents of the world’s most famous sheep farmer: multiple Formula 1 World Champion Jim Clark.
After a swift breakfast – complete with a hearty serving of haggis – it is time to find out whether those clever engineers have pulled it off. Outside, a troop of OCTAs dutifully idle in the hotel car park, poised for a route that snakes across some of Clark’s favourite B-roads before ascending over rugged hillocks, wading through streams and storming across grassy plains.
Now, standing beside it, I take in the details. The styling updates are subtle rather than shouty – tweaked bumpers, a new front grille, flared arches and 22-inch alloys whose design wouldn’t look out of place on a WRC car. Yet, unless you know what you’re looking at, it just appears to be a well specced Defender. Even the badging is understated, with just two discreet OCTA emblems positioned on each pannier carrier.
The changes to the interior are more noticeable, although still understated. The front seats have a sportier design than those typically found in a Defender, finished in eye-catching forged carbonfibre that also adorns the edges of the centre console. Leather upholstery dominates the majority of the cabin, which is contrasted by a mixture of hard-wearing rubber as well as textured plastic surfaces that help to retain the practicality and durability that define the car’s character. Land Rover’s sharp, responsive Pivi Pro touchscreen dominates the dash, paired with a digital instrument cluster.
Surprisingly, this theme of subtlety persists once I hit the open road. In the car’s default and most docile setting, Comfort mode, the OCTA feels mostly like a more polished and refined version of the regular Defender. Despite its enormous power, the engine remains surprisingly civilised and quiet, while the sports seats offer both comfort and support. Drive normally, and there’s little to suggest 635bhp is lurking under your right foot. The suspension, meanwhile, is impressively supple, effortlessly absorbing any imperfections in the road.
Speaking of suspension, the OCTA has been fitted with JLR’s advanced 6D Dynamics system, which debuted in the 2024 Range Rover Sport SV. For a car such as this, it’s a game-changer. In essence, the set-up forgoes traditional anti-roll bars in favour of hydraulically interlinked dampers.
This semi-active system effectively adjusts the rebound, stiffness and damping on the fly, and thereby dramatically improves pitch and body roll during road driving while providing greater wheel articulation over rough terrain. A central Load Distribution Unit, meanwhile, controls squat and dive under hard acceleration and braking.
The results of this engineering witchcraft become obvious once you press the transparent OCTA button at the base of the steering wheel to enable Dynamic mode. This particular setting is designed to provide the best performance-focused driving experience the Defender chassis can offer on-road, by sharpening the steering and throttle response, and increasing the suspension system’s resistance to pitch, roll, squat and dive.
A blast down twisting provincial roads quickly proves the effectiveness of the 6D Dynamics system. The steering is sharp, the throttle response is eager and the body remains impressively flat and composed when pitched enthusiastically into a bend. The ride is firmer yet remarkably supple, adeptly dealing with whatever the road throws its way. Hustling a two-and-a-half-tonne Defender like a hot hatch shouldn’t be possible – but, for the most part, it is.
The fade-resistant Brembo brakes use steel rather than carbon-ceramic discs, because they’re better suited to off-road driving. Up front, massive 400mm discs are clamped by powerful six-piston calipers, delivering potent stopping power. That said, heavy braking from high speeds serves as the strongest reminder that the OCTA is still a hefty off-roader and not a nimble Volkswagen Golf GTI.
Venturing off-road, the OCTA proves just as capable on rougher terrain. With 553lb ft of torque, it scrambles up muddy inclines, wades through rivers and storms across grassy plains with ease. Yet again, it’s the 6D Dynamics system that steals the show. Wheel articulation is deeply impressive, the tyres have no problem finding grip and the body remains eerily stable, no matter what’s happening beneath.
In fact, the only way to gauge just how hard the suspension is working is by watching the wheels of other OCTAs in the convoy. It’s like a swan gliding serenely across a lake – effortless on the surface but paddling furiously beneath.
A brief stop for lunch in the wilderness – courtesy of British chef and The Hidden Hut founder Simon Stallard – allow the Defenders a chance to cool after a morning spent conquering the varied terrain of the Scottish Borders. But the real test is still to come: a narrow, bumpy, tree-lined farm track, repurposed as a short rally stage. It even features a strategically placed hay bale for the more juvenile journalists among us to slide around.
Now donning an open-face helmet – and slightly regretting the indulgent lunch – I hold the button at the base of the steering wheel, engaging OCTA mode for fast off-road driving. The instrument display glows red, flashing a G-force graph plus power and torque metrics alongside the revcounter and speedometer – not that I will have time to look.
It is on the rally stage that the OCTA reveals its greatest party trick of all. It feels incredibly agile thanks to the responsive steering, the clever suspension and the four-wheel-drive system continually shuffling the power around to meet the terrain’s myriad demands. The colossal amount of power and torque means that provoking the car into a slide – and holding it around that hay bale – is almost effortless. I’ve driven a hot Defender before – a full motorsport-prepped Bowler Defender Challenge car – and, around this short rally stage, the OCTA feels eerily similar. Particularly in the way the suspension simply shrugs off whatever you throw it.
After two days of wading through rivers, scrambling up muddy tracks and charging across B-roads, one thing is clear: the OCTA isn’t just the most performance-focused descendant of Maurice Wilks’ Land Rover – it’s also among the most capable off-roaders the brand has ever built.
Jim Clark would have loved it. Just as adept at rescuing sheep in the depths of the Scottish countryside as it is at carving up B-roads, it would have suited him perfectly. That sheer breadth of ability – or ‘bandwidth,’ as JLR more corporately puts it – is what makes this performance car so special.
Little wonder, then, that all 1070 First Edition models allocated to the UK have already sold out – despite the punchy £160,800 price tag.
More details here.
