To Land’s End in a Land Rover Defender V8

We’re a long way from Los Angeles, Toto. The murdered-out Land Rover Defender 110 V8—black over black with satin dark gray 22-inch wheels and four chrome exhaust pipes peeking out from under the rear bumper, exactly the default spec you’ll find on the Land Rover USA configurator—would look right at home parked out front of L.A.’s swanky Beverly Hills Hotel. Instead, it’s parked in the mud atop a wind-swept cliff in Cornwall, England.

Nearby, a madman is attempting to drive a BMW Z3 up a steep, rock-strewn track that would have the Defender’s sophisticated all-wheel-drive system sweating as it computed the traction options. Concentration is etched on his face as he picks his line and works the gas pedal; it’s high-stakes stuff even though the Z3 is traveling at barely 10 mph. Welcome to The Land’s End Trial, British motorsport at its most elemental.

Interrupted only by two world wars and COVID, the Land’s End Trial has been held in Britain every Easter since 1908. As this year marked the 100th running of the event, we thought it would be a fun idea to take a completely reimagined British icon to an iconic British motorsport event that’s changed remarkably little since the days of crank handles and carburetors. Land Rover to Land’s End.

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What's the Land’s End Trial Anyway?

Designed to test a car’s ability to handle poor roads, steep climbs, and long distances in an era when engines and transmissions needed frequent maintenance and when good brakes and durable tires were rare, reliability trials were a big deal in the early days of the automobile in Britain. In 1907, Rolls-Royce famously entered the car that became known as the Silver Ghost in several Scottish reliability trials, before then driving it an additional 15,000 miles (including 27 trips between London and Edinburgh) with only a single regular service. The feat earned it the sobriquet “the best car in the world” from the British motoring press—a tagline Rolls-Royce would quietly trade on for decades to come.

By the 1930s, events such as the London to Land’s End Trial were attracting factory-supported entries from British automakers such as MG, Riley, and Frazer-Nash, as well as drivers like Donald Healey (later to found Austin Healey) and one of the famed Bentley Boys, 1927 Le Mans winner Sammy Davis.

Today’s Land’s End Trial has nowhere near its prewar scale or glamour. It now starts well west of London and focuses on back roads in the quieter parts of Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. Many of the eclectic bunch of cars taking part—everything from vintage Fords and MGs to ’60s and ’70s British roadsters and sedans to Toyota MR2s, air-cooled VW Beetles, Suzuki X-90s, and hand-built trials specials—look like refugees from Roadkill. It’s decidedly low budget. But the competition is fierce.

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Land’s End Trial Rules

The rules are simple. Competitors must follow written instructions to stay on the correct route, with hidden checkpoints along the way to make sure they do. There are several timed stages, though they’re much shorter and taken at nothing like the pace of those in WRC rally racing. Most competitive sections consist of attempting to climb rough, steep, rocky, or muddy hills without coming to a complete halt.

With all-wheel drive and locked or limited-slip diffs banned (other than in front-drive cars), it’s quite a challenge. Good ground clearance, long wheel travel, low weight, and lots of torque are key. With not much momentum to play with—the stages begin with a standing start that’s often halfway up the hill—maintaining traction is everything. Watching a vintage Ford Model A sedan walk up the daunting Blue Hills 2 climb was an object lesson in trials vehicle dynamics.

Blue Hills 2, part of the Land’s End Trial since 1936, would have challenged our Defender V8, not the least because its street-oriented 275/45R22 Continental Cross Contact all-season tires would have struggled for traction on the shattered rock and slick mud. The fact it’s about the size of a small English barn and weighs more than 5,600 pounds wouldn’t have helped, either. Blue Hills 2 is a reminder that many modern vehicles, bigger and heavier than ever, are outgrowing the environment.

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The Curious Case of the Defender V8

The Defender V8 is a curious beast, an off-roader for people who have no intention of going off-road. Ever. To be clear, this is not a criticism of Land Rover: The success of Lamborghini’s Urus, Aston Martin’s DBX707, Ferrari’s Purosangue, and Bentley’s Bentayga shows blingy SUVs with big horsepower and big wheels are proven money spinners. It would be remiss of Land Rover not to play the game and pocket the cash.

And to be fair, the $112,975 Defender V8, like the Mercedes-AMG G63, hasn’t entirely surrendered its off-road card. It will still go farther than almost all other SUVs when you run out of tarmac. And just like the G63, which is available with an optional off-road pack, the Defender V8 can be ordered with more sensible 20-inch wheels and 255/60R20 all-terrain tires (a $350 option, one of the few instances in the auto industry where a smaller wheel costs more).

Against the 650 hp and more packed by the Ferrari, Lambo, Aston, and Bentley SUVs, the Defender V8’s 518 hp seems weak sauce. And its 461 lb-ft of torque is no match for the 641 lb-ft produced by the recently refreshed AMG G63.

But the venerable 5.0-liter supercharged AJ133 V-8, an engine that’s powered high-performance Jaguars and Range Rovers since 2009, will still shove the bricklike Defender V8 to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds and to a claimed top speed of 149 mph. That makes it 1.6 seconds quicker to 60 mph than the 395-hp, 406-lb-ft 3.0-liter six-cylinder Defender and 30-mph faster at the top end.

To cope with the increased on-road performance, the Defender V8 boasts bigger brakes, upgraded suspension with different springs and shocks and thicker anti-roll bars, and a recalibrated active rear differential. A new Dynamic drive mode stiffens the suspension and sharpens the response of the supercharged V-8 and eight-speed automatic transmission. Not that you’d bother. The Defender V8’s milieu is relaxed mile munching. It’s never going to hang with a Ferrari Purosangue over a twisting mountain pass or frighten a Lamborghini Urus on the autobahn.

That said, the 5.0-liter supercharged V-8 delivers a satisfying surge when you get on the gas at low speeds and impressive top-end bite when you have the room to keep your foot down, all to the accompaniment of a lovely, muted burble. The steering is concise and well-weighted, the brake pedal offers good feel, and the body motions are beautifully controlled. The Defender V8 might be a big, heavy SUV, but it can be driven briskly with remarkable economy of effort.

As we discovered on our 750-mile run down to Cornwall and back, the Defender V8 will cruise comfortably at 90 mph on the highway. The combination of extra power and sharper chassis tuning made it easier to maintain momentum on the empty and flowing two-lanes across Exmoor. And when checking out famous old Land’s End Trial stages such as Beggar’s Roost, first used in 1922, we knew Land Rover’s arsenal of off-road technologies we keep us out of trouble.

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You ride high, wide, and handsome in the Defender V8, with a commanding view over the hood. We found the seats supportive and comfortable, even after a full day on the road. The latest version of JLR’s Pivi Pro infotainment system proved fast and intuitive to use, hooking up to a smartphone in seconds and providing one of the smoothest Apple CarPlay integrations in the business.

Only those 22-inch wheels and low-profile tires ruffled the Defender V8’s impressive imperturbability. Although impact harshness is well suppressed, the ride is noticeably more agitated than in Defenders on a more sensible wheel and tire combination, especially at speeds under 40 mph. We’d spend $350 on the optional five-spoke satin dark gray 20-inch wheels—which can be ordered with all-season tires rather than all-terrain tires if you prefer—in a heartbeat even though that would mean restricting the Defender V8’s top speed to 119 mph. It would make the Land Rover even more comfortable on the road and more capable off it. Win-win.

And don’t worry. Even on those 20s, this Dark Brandon Defender would still look right at home parked out front of the Beverly Hills Hotel.