bowler project csp575 landrover iii
bowler project csp575 landrover i
bowler project csp575 landrover ii
land rover defender 110 v8 22my 250221 06 enky
land rover defender 90 22my 250221 04 b1cg
John Mahoney8 Mar 2021
NEWS

Land Rover plotting Defender to fight Ford Ranger Raptor

Purchase of off-road race team key to range of faster, more extreme-based performance 4x4s, says JLR's SVO boss

Land Rover is secretly working on a faster, more extreme version of the Land Rover Defender that will see it go head-to-head with both the Ford Ranger Raptor and the more expensive Mercedes-AMG G 63.

Although not yet confirmed, if it reaches production the SV version would likely be based on the recently-unveiled Land Rover Defender V8 but offer more power and torque, motorsport-inspired high-lift race suspension, bespoke body changes and new tech to ensure the go-anywhere SUV will be even faster and more capable off-road.

Speaking exclusively to carsales, JLR SVO boss Michael van der Sande wouldn't explicitly confirm the Land Rover Defender SV had been green-lit but explained the reason why the new Defender V8 didn't carry an 'SV' or 'SVX' badge was because it didn't have the right "amount of technical changes you would expect on an SV product".

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When asked if his division was developing a faster version of the Defender or other core Land Rover models, van der Sande hinted "our purchase of Bowler last year was very intentional".

"We felt we were slightly underrepresented in performance off-roading," he added.

Bowler has been modifying and racing Land Rovers since 1985 and regularly competes in top-flight motorsport races like the Dakar Rally.

It's thought Bowler's hard-core 405kW supercharged V8-powered CSP 575, based on the last-generation Defender 110, could provide clues, with its Rally Raid racer-for-the-road approach already a smash-hit.

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But van der Sande said that if the model is given the go-ahead for production, it might not carry an SVX badge.

"Would we call it SVX? I'm not sure," he said, suggesting that another nameplate like SVR could be re-used for the fast Defender.

However, the former boss of Renault-owned Alpine said a faster Defender wouldn't necessarily be all about being the sportiest in its segment.

"We have a strategy of remaining faithful to the underlying character for the vehicle we're developing," he said.

"That's really important to me. When you just add sport to the car you're working on, sometimes you end up with a really good car – sometimes you end up with a really incoherent car that doesn't quite know what it is."

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That said, van der Sande knows only too well that the last time his division tried to branch out and develop something beyond the SVR remit it didn't quite go to plan.

The first and only Land Rover to carry the SVX badge was back in 2017 when the 4x4 brand revealed a concept for a Land Rover Discovery SVX powered by a supercharged 5.0-litre V8 that produced 368kW and 625Nm.

Touted as the "most extreme Land Rover yet", the Disco featured a raised ride height, more wheel articulation, large all-terrain tyres, long-travel dampers, an active centre diff and an electronic rear locking diff.

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Just a year later, the Discovery SVX was cancelled at the later stage of development without any official reason – until now.

According to van der Sande, it was he and SVO's chief engineer, Jamal Hameedi, that were behind the decision after both men, who were new to the business, decided the flagship Discovery wasn't good enough.

"JLR as a business back then had grown too fast and it meant that, as a department, we had bitten off a bit more than we could chew. We just had too many things on the go at once," the SVO boss explained.

Overwhelmed with too many top-secret engineering projects, van der Sande said he and Hameedi decided to downscale SVO's activities.

"We decided rather than doing 20 things at a level that weren't quite where we wanted them to be, we'd do five or 10 and do them really well," he said.

"Instead of a large number of vehicles sold in small numbers, we want to develop a small number of class-leading vehicles that sell in their thousands."

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With the success of the Range Rover Sport SVR, Jaguar F-PACE SVR, ultra-luxurious Range Rover Autobiography and the highly profitable Continuation models, van der Sande says there is now more scope to expand the number of vehicles it is working on.

After growing his team to 1500 employees, he is now open to a follow-up to the Project 7 and 8 in the "mid-term", but not in the near future.

Instead, with Bowler on board and the new experience accrued, the SVO boss -- who has also spent time at Harley-Davidson and Tesla -- is excited about what products are in the pipeline.

"Where there is an ultimate expression of a car that we do, we will go and do that."

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