It’s been very just about a 12 months since Land Rover presented the Defender seventy fifth Restricted Version on paper. In case that seismic second handed you by way of, let’s recap: the brand new fashion – to be had in each 90 or 110 frame types – marks the anniversary of the Collection I debut on the Amsterdam Motor Display in 1948. Now, the importance of that divulge is infrequently in query; few corporations get to track their genesis again to this type of uncomplicated pivotal second, and whilst Maurice Wilks’ second of army surplus genius has been retold and romanticised to dying, it sticks out as one of the vital country’s nice postwar car good fortune tales. 

As a result, celebrating it with what quantities to a complicated paint process and a few questionable wheels on a high-spec model of a big and resource-heavy SUV is both problematic or splendidly apt, relying on which facet of the fence you’re prone to face. Vocal PHers, in fact, controlled to straddle the controversy from the primary second. ‘My eyes! I’m no longer intended to get Grasmere Inexperienced in it!’ used to be the paraphrased gist of the dissent, even if some expressed a liking for the unique and iconic color – if no longer the verdict to color the 20-inch alloys the similar coloration. 

Within the flesh, this reservation turns out proper at the cash. Naturally, it is helping to be an current fan of the present Defender to suppose it good-looking in a hue that famously owes its origins to the paint utilized in airplane cockpits (as a result of that’s what they needed to hand in 1948) however the seventy fifth is agreeable sufficient till you arrive on the spangly five-spoke wheels. Any person discussed ’80s cocaine elegant within the information tale feedback, even if it in reality turns out extra cartoonish than that during individual. In case you’ve been to the cinema not too long ago, suppose Ken’s First SUV. Land Rover will almost definitely reside with that analogy, despite the fact that it will have swerved round it just by becoming the metal wheels that may’ve set the color off completely – because it did in 2015 with the wildly well-liked, last-of-the-line Heritage Version. 

That the producer didn’t is proof sufficient that it’s focused on a distinct form of purchaser – even bearing in mind the usual all-terrain tyres and folding cloth roof that distinguish the seventy fifth. Within, the fashion will get its feature ‘Go Automotive Beam’ completed in a powder coat model of Grasmere Inexperienced with ’75 Years’ laser etched onto the tip caps. Another way, it’s very a lot according to the HSE, with heated electrical seats, three-zone local weather keep watch over, a heated guidance wheel, the most recent 11.4-inch Pivi Professional infotainment gadget, 3-d Encompass Digicam, Matrix LED headlights and Configurable Terrain Reaction all integrated.

It’s no accident that Land Rover presented a brand new vary of way of life merch at the similar day it introduced the seventy fifth: there may be, unavoidably, one thing of the trinket about it. The former Heritage Version have shyed away from bauble standing as a result of beneath it remained, proudly, an outdated Defender, and used to be due to this fact as hurly-burly as your grandad’s instrument shed. So whilst it used to be categorically no longer a Collection I, it would nonetheless be pushed down the closest byway with one thing just like the outdated bouncy fervour; phase automotive, phase portable farmyard. Evidently, the seventy fifth can not do this. It slightly suits down the closest byway, and when it does the prerequisites underfoot make not more of an affect on it than the Manchester Send Canal would on a Russian icebreaker. 

Through the similar token, again at the street, it’s virtually not possible not to just like the seventy fifth for the reason that automotive beneath the golf green is so obviously excellent at being a modern day SUV. We infrequently wish to reside on the main points right here since you’ve heard all of them earlier than (no longer least from John H’s long-term love affair with the similar D300 110 we’re working at the PH fleet) however suffice it to mention that the oil-burning Restricted Version begins and forestalls and turns and excursions with acquainted big-shouldered allure – made all of the extra agreeable by way of the truth that you’ll be able to whip lots of the roof away on the contact of a button. Having your hair messed up by way of a summer time breeze whilst sitting excessive above the site visitors, most commonly impervious to the situation of the street and afloat an indefatigable 479lb feet of torque, is almost definitely the definitive Twenty first-century Land Rover revel in. 

In that sense, the seventy fifth is a becoming tribute – much less so that you could the Collection I, and extra to the 75 intervening years between right here and there. The present Defender is not more just like the 1948 display automotive than an F35 Lightning II is sort of a Gloster Meteor, and apart most likely from some great benefits of low weight and dimension and uncooked fixability, its house owners can also be thankful for that reality. The good fortune of its newest iteration is a testomony to Land Rover’s hard-won but reputedly intrinsic skill to construct world-beating SUVs in 2023; that it has retained this wherewithal around the higher a part of 8 many years and more than one house owners says a lot in regards to the women and men who paintings there, and their marrow-deep appreciation of what makes a Land Rover worthy of the outline 75 years after Maurice Wilks conceived of this type of factor. 

That mentioned, JLR’s willingness to make use of an enviably wealthy seam of heritage as a bicycle pump for its final analysis may just most likely do with a sympathetic tweak. That the seventy fifth Restricted Version began at £85,995 for a 90 and £89,995 for a 110 when it went on sale final 12 months is not any actual wonder given the hefty worth of the encompassing lineup (our personal non-special Defender used to be £82,255 after choices) however it could be more straightforward to swallow had Land Rover carried out itself a bit of extra diligently to the method of differentiating the automobile from its stablemates. Finally, attention-grabbing colors best get you to this point. Selecting the best wheels would’ve a minimum of recommended that Gaydon is being aware of its previous glories relatively than simply eating off them. 

Engine: 2,997cc, delicate hybrid, immediately six diesel
Transmission: 8-speed automated, all-wheel force
Energy (hp): 300@4,000rpm
Torque (lb feet): 479@1,500-2,500rpm
0-62mph: 7.0 secs
Best velocity: 119mph
Weight: 2,361kg (DIN)
MPG: 32.9
CO2: 2225g/km
Worth: £89,995 (as examined £92,435)