It was one of the good days for Jaguar Land Rover’s test driver, who was recently spied testing a test mule of a high-performance Defender at the fearsome Nurburgring. Although the variant is still shrouded in mystery, some details suggest that this could be an off-road competitor for the likes of the Mercedes-AMG G 63.
The quad tailpipes, for instance, indicate that this is the V8 version of the Defender, which is powered by a 5.0-liter, 518 hp (386 kW/525 PS) engine that has been a big seller for the brand. The widened wheel arches, meanwhile, suggest that this will be an even more performance-oriented vehicle than the existing V8.
The off-road-focused wheels and the BF Goodrich all-terrain tires, on the other hand, hint that this might be more dirt-oriented than tarmac-focused. If that’s the case, Land Rover could employ the assistance of Bowler, which it recently bought to bring in-house, in the creation of this high-performance Defender.
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“At Special Vehicle Operations, we are all eager to start working with our new colleagues at Bowler,” said JLR SVO’s managing director, Michael van der Sande, in 2019. “Adding the Bowler team’s skills and experience to those of SV, Vehicle Personalization and Classic is a key step in our strategy to create an exciting and diverse portfolio of products and businesses within Special Vehicle Operations.”
More recently, van der Sande said that the reason for buying Bowler was to redress what it viewed as the brand being underrepresented in the performance off-roading scene. It’s unclear what the Defender variant will be called but the brand could opt for its go-to SVR title or the SVX moniker, which it attached to a very off-road-ready Discovery concept in 2017.
Whatever it’s called, this high-performance SUV isn’t expected to go on sale for another couple of years, meaning that it could even be based on an updated version of the Defender.
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