A Farewell To The Land Rover Defender
68 years ago, Rover’s engineering director, Maurice Wilks, was walking on Red Wharf Bay’s beach with his brother Spencer, who was Rover’s marketing director. While talking about an eventual car that could go anywhere and work on a farm, Maurice took a stick and drew a continuous line in the sand, outlining the shape of a very boxy truck. This was the birth of the Land Rover Defender, a true 4x4 that has been sold without much change for nearly seven decades.
Sadly, 2015 marks the end of this Land Rover’s production. To mark the passing of the legend, Jaguar Land Rover decided to draw the vehicle’s shape in the sand again, albeit on a much larger scale. Using large tillers, a few Defenders recreated the iconic shape in a reproduction measuring 1 kilometre across. It was drawn in one continuous line measuring 4.52 km. The artists had to be quick, since they only had 3 hours before the tide washed everything away.
- Also: 2015 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque: Walk Your Own Path
- Also: 2015 Land Rover Discovery Unveiled
Jaguar Land Rover will also offer limited editions of the 2015 Defender called the Celebration Series. Three models will be sold, and each will represent a part of the Defender’s history:
- The Autobiography represents Land Rover’s luxurious side, with its Windsor leather interior, its two-tone paint and production limited to 80 units.
- The Heritage is a tribute to Land Rover’s first steps. It sports a unique grille inspired by the very first Defender and a Grasmere Green paint job with a white roof. It also features HUE 166 stickers (a nod to the license plate of the first Defender ever sold to the public).
- Finally, the Adventure model has been created to go pretty much anywhere. To do so, it is equipped with protective skid plates, Goodyear MT/R off-road tires and an air intake snorkel.
Regardless of the chosen model, all 2015 Defenders come with a 2.2 litre diesel engine producing 122 horsepower and 265 pound-feet of torque.
Sadly, if you want to buy one of these vehicles in Canada, you will have to wait until 2030, as our laws won’t allow importation for another 15 years…