Defender OCTA: Land Rover's classic car, reimagined. And then reimagined again, with 626BHP

Take one look at the Defender OCTA and you know it means business. Its flared arches protrude aggressively from its squared bodywork, hugging its huge off-road tyres. A swollen bonnet hump hints at the large V8 underneath, as does the larger front grille, designed to increase cooling. A stealthy matte paint job adds villainy.

All of this visual trickery isn’t quite enough to reveal the car’s true plans for on and off-road dominance though. The OCTA’s design is, dare we say it, subtle compared to the staggering performance it offers on any terrain. It is the most powerful, fastest and most capable Defender of all time, and it is here to rip the ultimate SUV crown from the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Lamborghini and Porsche.

Land Rovers have always been the off-roader of choice for those after hardworking, reliable machinery. The original Series I was developed as a slightly more civilised, road-friendly alternative to the Willy’s Jeep. It was the first mass-produced four-wheel drive car and became the template that all other off-roaders would follow. It was one of Britain’s greatest exports, beloved by farmers and royalty. The Queen owned several over the decades, and Winston Churchill chose to be chauffeured in one around his estate. His came modified from the factory, with an extra wide armchair passenger seat to accommodate his size, as well as leather-clad handrails and a footwell heater.

Churchill might have been ahead of his time with these mods. Comfort was never Land Rover’s strong point, and this continued with the introduction of the Defender in 1983, despite the addition of softer coil spring suspension and a radio. But it is a key attraction of the new Defender, launched in 2020, which might have lost some of the basic ruggedness of the original, but gained with all-round drivability and heated seats. The OCTA takes everything JLR has learned over the past eight decades, combining a new level of performance expected of the Defender, with the luxury elements and comfort usually associated with Range Rover.

It very much feels like a ‘why not?’ kind of car. It’s JLR flexing its engineering capabilities at a time when extreme performance, luxury SUVs have never been more popular. Every big name manufacturer is producing them. Range Rover’s own Sport SV is one of the key players, as is Bentley and its Bentayga, the Lamborghini Urus, Mercedes-AMG G 63 and the BMW XM. There is the Porsche Cayenne GT, a 650bhp monster. And two of the most powerful: the Aston Martin DBX 707 with 707bhp, and the 715bhp Ferrari Purosangue.

The OCTA isn’t the most powerful of the bunch. It has 626 bhp and 750Nm of torque from its 4.4-litre twin turbo mild-hybrid V8. This is good enough for a 0-60mph time of 3.8 seconds, a rapid figure considering the car’s 2510kg mass. But where the others are more road focussed, the Defender is all about its breadth of ability. It’s a car that is dynamically capable on the road, but also at home on a mountain-side, a muddy hill or, as I find out, in a river.

To question why this car has been put into production might be missing the point. Nobody really needs a 626bhp Defender, after all. Nobody needs a 700bhp convertible supercar either. This is a car JLR has made because it can. It will also form the basis for Land Rover’s works entry into next year’s World Rally-Raid Championship, which includes the legendary Dakar Rally, showing how confident they are with the package.

For the 2026 season, Land Rover will be competing ‘with a three-car Defender works team entry’, says Mark Cameron, Defender managing director. ‘We have chosen to compete in the “Stock” category to showcase the toughness and dependability of the production Defender.’

As the ultimate rendition of Defender, the OCTA is intimidating to look at. But get behind the wheel and any tension dissipates quickly. It’s big and powerful, but extraordinarily easy to drive around town, and visibility is good from the tall, upright driving position, allowing you to place the car accurately down narrow roads. Leave the driver mode in ‘comfort’ and it feels like a regular commuter, albeit one with ‘chopped’ carbon fibre inserts and expensive leather armchair seats that Churchill would surely approve of.

Dial things up a notch to ‘dynamic’ mode and the car sinks into a more aggressive, firmer stance, the suspension tightening up and the steering and throttle response sharpening. The big V8 comes to life, providing a raw, old school burble that begs to be drawn out to the redline. It is fast and can overtake anything on the road. The suspension is the star though. The 6D Dynamics set up comes with pitch and roll control, which essentially keeps the car flat through corners, eliminating body roll.

Crank it up further into OCTA mode and things get really wild. Designed specifically for off-road use, it unlocks a special launch control that optimises acceleration on loose surfaces, while also tweaking the ABS for better braking feel. It turns it into an oversized rally car, allowing for controlled drifts that inspire confidence in the driver.

It can go slowly off-road too. On my test drive in the Scottish Borders I traversed rocks, impossible muddy climbs and drove through a river. It has a wading depth of one metre, which will make light work of the autumn floods. Land Rover’s engineers reckon it’s the most capable off-roader in the company’s history, which is saying something. In short, there isn’t much it can’t do, and while it won’t save you any money with its £148,045 price tag, you’d be hard pressed to have more fun on four wheels.