SPY PICS: Tough new Land Rover Defender SVX ready to head bush

The most intense factory-produced Land Rover Defender to date isn’t far away from being released, judging by these fresh spy shots that show a V8-powered Defender riding on beefier off-road suspension and a much more aggressive all-terrain wheel and tyre combination.

Rumour has it the British SUV brand’s new off-road flagship will be dubbed the 2024 Land Rover Defender SVX, recalling the mothballed hero project based on the previous-generation Defender and orchestrated by Jaguar Land Rover’s Special Vehicles Operations.

Given this disguised prototype was loaded on the back of a flat-bed truck, our covert snapper was able to get up close and personal with Land’s Rover’s upcoming answer to the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 and Ford Bronco Raptor, photographing not only the vehicle’s widened body but its uprated chassis and rolling stock as well.

Said wheel and tyre combination comprises a bespoke set of 20-inch alloys and four 265/60-profile BF Goodrich Trail-Terrain A/T tyres and while details around the uprated suspension remain unknown for now, our man on the ground confirmed that ground clearance was higher than that of a standard Defender and that the vehicle incorporated adjustable ride height.

Protruding from the rear bumper is the familiar Defender V8 quad exhaust outlets, but there is some conjecture about which V8 will reside under the bonnet of the SVX.

The first and most likely option is the existing supercharged 5.0-litre V8 that powers the current Defender V8, but there’s a chance it could employ the newer and cleaner BMW-sourced twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8 from the Range Rover line-up.

Either way, the SVX will comfortably develop more than 510hp (380kW) and offer a wonderful soundtrack to match, as V8s continue to be consigned to the pages of history while smaller, gustier and cleaner hybrid powertrainss flood all corners of the market.

The SVX’s widened wheel-arches house what looks to be significantly wider wheel tracks than the standard Defender line-up, which unlike some hero 4x4s can’t be attributed to the chunkier off-road rubber.

The BFG all-terrain tyres fitted to the prototype are 10mm narrower than the low-profile performance shoes that come standard on the existing Defender V8.

All of the Defender’s standard and optional off-road goodies are sure to be present and probably tweaked for this harder-core application, including an army of surround-view cameras, electronic active diffs, height-adjustable air suspension, permanent all-wheel-drive, low range ratios and Terrain Response 2 drive modes.

If Land Rover can pull the project off, the Defender SVX is in with a good chance of being the most capable factory off-roader on the market, without compromising its on-road manners too much.

Sadly, all this extra capability will come at a cost, which will probably eclipse the already-stratospheric $226,500 price tag of the existing Defender 110 P525 V8.

A late-2023 reveal and global launch has been speculated, so don’t expect to see the new Defender flagship Down Under until around mid-2024.

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