This is the ultimate 4WD
Land Rover has unveiled the Defender Dakar, a road-legal version of its high-performance rally racing SUV. The vehicle features advanced off-road technology, including a unique 'flight mode' to manage landings on uneven terrain.
Why it matters
This vehicle represents the intersection of extreme automotive engineering and consumer luxury, showcasing trickle-down technology from professional racing.
Land Rover's Defender Dakar is a road-legal version of its hardcore 2026 Dakar Rally racing Defender Octa complete with a "flight mode" to ensure perfect landings after doing jumps. In another case of completely-unnecessary-but-we-want-it-desperately-anyway, Land Rover is bringing us a road-going - or anywhere-going - version of its Dakar Rally D7X-R racing SUV. The Defender Octa is an already bonkers high-performance off-road beast with its 4.4-litre V8 engine (the same found in BMW's M5) making 367kW and 750Nm, outstanding four-wheel drive capability combined with mind boggling on-road dynamics, but the Defender Dakar goes more berserk. "We've pushed our engineers to go further than they've ever gone before," Defender Managing Director Mark Cameron said. "First, we evolved Defender OCTA into D7X‑R and then we asked: could we make the Dakar Rally‑winning D7X‑R road legal? The result is the Defender Dakar."
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