Jaguar Land Rover’s Defender, a sport utility vehicle brand, has revealed the Defender Dakar is a limited-production, road-legal, extreme off-road SUV. It is derived from the high-performance production SUV Defender OCTA, and it is technically related to the D7X-R Dakar Rally competition car.
The reservation for the model is all set to start in 2027. Reports confirm that the brand will reveal all its specifications and features at the 2027 Dakar Rally, the world’s toughest long-distance rally-raid motorsport event.
How’s the Dakar’s exterior?
Upfront, it has a carbon-fiber bonnet for better strength, raised carbon-fiber air intakes to feed air to the engine, roof-mounted auxiliary lights for better road illumination during nighttime rallies, a wide front track to improve high-speed stability, and round-shaped LED daylight running lights bracketing the main LED main headlamps.
On the sides, it sits on 20-inch forged wheels with 35-inch all-terrain tires, making it all-terrain friendly, getting extended wheel arches with exposed rivets, featuring high ground clearance, and having pull-type door handles. Equipped with an A-pillar-mounted squared blacked-out outside rear-view mirror with blinkers, and a boat’s body-colored C-pillar and black A, B, and D pillars to enhance the side view.
At the rear, it has a large windshield, a roof-mounted shark-fin antenna, double rounded square-shaped LED taillamps, a higher-mounted braking light, a side-opening tailgate with a pull-type vertical handle to enhance practicality, a rugged bumper, a slim horizontal-shaped reflector on the sides of the body-colored lower bumper, signature mud flaps, and underbody protection.
What has been revealed so far?
It will be available for sale with multiple color options; one among them is set to be the combination of Dakar Sand and Yanbu Turquoise. Reports confirm that it will come with Dunes and Gravel modes and also Flight mode to improve stability after the jumps. It used coil springs instead of air with the Bilstein Advanced dampers to enhance the vehicle’s control on rough terrain and high-speed off-roading.
Features 4 people seating with front race seats and rear individual seats, set to come with four-point racing harnesses but optional, which keeps the driver firmly positioned in the seat and reduces excessive body movement over rough terrain. It is certain that it will get mounting points for an air compressor, load bay mounting points for a spare wheel, and a rear storage area for race helmets.
Its cabin is still undisclosed; we are expecting it to be too similar to the Dakar Rally-winning D7X-R competition car’s. The dashboard will have two spokes with a fully digital instrument cluster beneath. The center of the dashboard will have a horizontal-shaped infotainment system, below which a block of physical buttons are set to be available, and two screens for the co-passenger on the dashboard are also anticipated.
Any update on powertrain and dimensions?
The carmaker is yet to reveal what it will have under the bonnet, but reports suggest that it will get a 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 petrol-powered internal combustion engine that is mated with the rally-derived automatic transmission. Its drivetrain is all-wheel-drive. The ICE generates the maximum 635 PS power and 750 Nm peak torque. The 0 to 100 kmph acceleration timing and top speed are still pending; they will unveil them with launch.
The dimensions are still pending but highly anticipated to be quite similar to the Defender OCTA, whose length, width, and height are 5,018 mm, 2,064 mm, and 1,967 mm, respectively, with the wheelbase, the distance between the axles, being 3,023 mm. Its front and rear track are 1,704 mm and 1,669 mm, respectively, but for the De Dakar, it is set to be wider. The ground clearance of around 350 mm is anticipated, 37 mm more than the SUV from which it is derived, when unladen.