Defender transits to new lease on life

Land Rover has upgraded the ancient Defender to meet new environmental mandates. Something of an orphan among the newer and highly-regarded Freelander, Discovery and the Range Rover siblings (Sport and Vogue), the Defender can directly trace its ancestry back to the original Land Rover of 1948.

Through Series I, II, IIA, III, County and Defender, the hard-core Land Rover has been much like the air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle: plenty of changes but still recognisably related after all these years.

And Land Rover hasn't diverged from that course with the latest model of Defender, released this week Down Under. It's still obviously a Land Rover and almost visually identical to the model that preceded it. Underneath the upgraded model, however, there's a new 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel which is a cleaner-running engine than the 'old' TD5 five-cylinder engine.

The new engine is the same as fitted to the Ford Transit and features an alloy head and a variable geometry turbocharger to reduce turbo lag. Land Rover has tweaked the engine to ensure that lubrication and sealing don't suffer in the sort of the conditions encountered off-road. The company has also introduced an anti-stall system with the new engine, reducing the prospect of stalling in extreme circumstances.

Fuel consumption for the new engine in combined cycle testing according to ADR81/01 is 11.0lt/100km for the 110 wagon and 11.1lt/100km for the 130 crew cab. Whilst the engine is Euro IV-compliant, it will also run on lower-grade diesel fuels without modification.

A long-stroke design, the engine develops 90kW of power at 3500rpm and 360Nm of torque at 2000rpm. That's the same power, but about 60Nm more torque than the old five-cylinder TD5 engine. At least 315Nm of torque is available across a rev range from 1500-2700rpm.

Indeed, it's the very long stroke and the consequent height of the motor that have generated the new Defender's most obvious visual cue -- the prominent bulge in the bonnet. As well as housing the taller engine, the bulge accommodates the alternator which is mounted high to clear the waterline during wading.

The new engine is matched to a six-speed manual transmission, which offers an extra cog over the previous model's for improved touring. Additionally, the first gear ratio is lower than in the superseded model's five-speeder, aiding acceleration and gradeability.

Land Rover has revised the clutch mechanism for lighter pedal pressure, which complements the easier gear change of the new transmission.

Other ergonomic changes include a new dash and the deletion of the old manually opening ventilation flaps below the windscreen. These are no longer necessary since Land Rover's introduction of a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system with eyeball vents in the new dash. The dash incorporates instruments from the Discovery 3 (more here).

Seats have been revised for improved comfort and the new optional third row seat has been designed for adult accommodation. Finishing off the revised Defender, Land Rover claims it has improved NVH with additional sound insulation.

The new Defender is priced from $48,990 for the 110 wagon and $50,990 for the Defender 130 crew cab. Options available are metallic paint ($900) and the third row seat option (N/A for the 130 crew cab, $2000).