Land Rover is harkening back to the Camel Trophy by re-engineering 25 examples of its original Defender.
By purchasing one of the Defender Works V8 Trophy vehicles, you’ll get entry to an exclusive Land Rover Trophy competition at Eastnor Castle.
Each vehicle is re-engineered by Land Rover Classic and is powered by a 5.0-litre petrol V8 engine producing 298kW of power and 515Nm of torque, mated to a ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission.
Land Rover is offering a choice of 90 or 110 bodies, both with uprated suspension, steering and braking.
Prices start at £195,000 (A$348,392) for a 90 in the UK, with Land Rover making it available in markets like Europe, Africa and Oceania subject to import regulations.
A new Defender in the UK, in comparison, starts at £42,920 (A$76,648).
To help with the slog off-road, each Trophy vehicle has been upgraded to include a front winch, multi-point expedition cage, additional underbody protection, a raised air intake, bull bar, and mud-terrain tyres.
They’re distinguished from your garden variety Defender with unique Eastnor Yellow paint with Narvik Black details.
There’s also a roof rack, LED headlights and spot lights, and body-colour, heavy-duty 16-inch steel wheels.
The interior is more luxurious than the exterior would suggest, with Recaro sports seats upholstered in black Windsor leather upholstery with contrasting yellow stitching.
There’s also a unique Land Rover Trophy clock by Elliot Brown plus Land Rover Classic’s Classic Infotainment System.
The three-day Trophy event takes place at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire, where Land Rover conducts much of its off-road testing.
If you’re one of the 25 buyers, you won’t be able to drive your vehicle until the event itself.
“Our customers want to create their own stories, battle scars and patina with their Works V8 Trophy vehicles from day one, fuelling campfire chats with like-minded enthusiasts,” said Land Rover Classic director Dan Pink.
The Camel Trophy ran annually from 1980 to 1998, and in every year except one Land Rover supplied vehicles painted in the same Sandglow Yellow livery.
Events took place in locales as far-flung as Borneo, Siberia and Guyana, and Land Rover entered a wide range of vehicles over the years including the Discovery and Range Rover.
Land Rover entered Freelanders in the 1998 event that took place in Tierra del Fuego in the very southern tip of South America and the event took a break for 1999, with just one last event occurring in 2000 in Tonga and Samoa.
As the name suggests, the original sponsor was Camel cigarettes.
