The Defender Dakar is a road-legal version of the D7X-R rally raid car that won the Stock class at the 2026 Dakar Rally on Defender’s first attempt. Land Rover showed it on 14 August 2026 at The Quail in California as a design preview rather than a finished production car, and described it as a limited run. Registrations of interest are open, reservations follow in early 2027, and the full specification is due at the 2027 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.
It keeps the competition car’s body architecture, transmission and driveline, all of which are based on the Defender OCTA. The BMW-sourced 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 is the same unit, run without the restrictors that competition rules impose, so it produces 635 PS (626 hp) and 750 Nm, with additional cooling. Drive goes through an eight-speed automatic with high and low ranges.
The chassis runs coil springs with Bilstein Advanced Dampers taken from the rally programme, and 35-inch all-terrain tyres on forged 20-inch wheels. Alongside the standard Defender settings there are Dunes and Gravel drive modes and Flight Mode, which was developed for the competition car to manage the driveline while the car is airborne so that landings do not shock it.
The bodywork adds a carbon-fibre bonnet and raised carbon-fibre air intakes, roof-mounted light pods, a fixed metal roof, extended wheel arches with exposed rivets, a tailgate blanking plate, mud flaps, a metal front undershield and further underbody protection. Inside it is a 2+2 with race seats designed for this car, four-point harnesses on the options list, rear stowage sized for helmets and mounting points for a spare wheel and an air compressor. The launch colour is Dakar Sand with a Yanbu Turquoise roof, with Narvik Black and Alaska White as alternatives.
