![]() This clean-sheet Defender still loves getting dirty, but it knows where the modern SUV earns its keep: on pavement, where the Defender’s aluminum monocoque, standard air springs (for the longer 110 model), and winning 395-hp, 3.0-liter inline-six help carve out a unique niche in a saturated SUV market. That includes eliminating the live axles that date to the Land Rover Series I’s postwar birth in 1948-inspired by America’s Willys-Overland Jeep-in exchange for a fully independent suspension. So with the crocodile tears finally drying, the Defender benefits from a clean break with its illustrious yet bygone past. Fewer than 7000 Americans bought a new Defender in its entire history in the country, which spanned from 1993 to 1995 with an encore in 1997. Jeep Wranglers have never been more popular, luring 200,000 customers a year. In America, too, Defenders have been more pith-helmeted, Born Free myth than roadgoing reality. The utilitarian interior of the past gives way to a rugged yet rich design with a generous infotainment screen. ![]() SIGN UP FOR THE TRACK CLUB BY R&T FOR MORE EXCLUSIVE STORIES This story originally appeared in Volume 6 of Road & Track. Yes, this spectacularly reborn Defender gives only a nod and a wink to the original’s enduring design, including that military-posture tail and a finely drawn waistline that demands a sergeant’s eyeball-level inspection to appreciate fully. If the Defender were a rookie athlete-disrespected and nearly dismissed by nostalgia-peddling auto journos before it set foot on the field-it would be forgiven the urge to spike the ball and wag its trainer-sculpted ass in their faces. The triage uncovers a figurative wound as well: a very large chip on the Defender’s shoulder. ![]() Despite being clawed by more scary trees than the cast of Evil Dead, the Defender’s pricey adventure accessories are blessedly intact: the air-intake snorkel on the A-pillar, the hinged “Gear Carrier” on the Rover’s right flank, the folding ladder that leads to the Italian-made rooftop tent where I’ll be spending the night. ![]() Alighting from the driver’s seat into what looks like a Civil War battleground-mud, mire, the shattered trees of a wood-chipping operation-I assess the wounded in our group, including the Defender’s lopped-off shotgun-side door handle. On a diabolical off-road trail in Maine, the Land Rover Defender takes some hard-earned R&R. ![]()
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