UK
Land Rover has revealed the Defender Dakar, a road-legal version of the D7X-R rally raid car that won the Stock class at the 2026 Dakar Rally in January. It was shown on 14 August at The Quail in California as a design preview rather than a finished production car, and Land Rover calls it a limited run without saying how many will be built or what one will cost.
The competition result behind it was a clean sweep on a debut entry. Three D7X-Rs finished first, second and fourth in the Stock class, Rokas Baciuška and Oriol Vidal taking the win and Stéphane Peterhansel fourth, with top-three finishes on 10 of the 13 stages and 24,000 km covered across 14 days.
What carries over from the race car
Land Rover names four things the road car keeps from the D7X-R: the body architecture, the transmission, the driveline and the BMW-sourced 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8. All four are shared with the Defender OCTA, which is the car the rally programme started from, so the carry-over is less a homologation exercise than a return to where the parts came from.
The chassis runs coil springs with the Bilstein Advanced Dampers used in competition, and 35-inch all-terrain tyres on forged 20-inch wheels. Two drive modes, Dunes and Gravel, join the standard Defender set, along with Flight Mode, which was written for the rally car to manage the driveline while all four wheels are off the ground so the landing does not shock it.
Everything else announced is bodywork and cabin. There is a carbon-fibre bonnet, raised carbon-fibre air intakes, roof-mounted light pods, a fixed metal roof, extended arches with exposed rivets, a tailgate blanking plate and a metal front undershield, and inside a 2+2 layout with race seats, optional four-point harnesses and rear stowage sized for helmets. Land Rover has not said which of those items are functional rally parts and which are references to them.
The engine, unrestricted
Competition rules cap what the Stock class engine may produce. Without them the V8 makes 635 PS (626 hp) and 750 Nm, with extra cooling added, driving through an eight-speed automatic with high and low ranges. That figure is worth reading against the rest of the range: for the 2027 model year the same engine in the Defender OCTA was cut to 533 hp, a change reported as a response to tighter European emissions limits, with North American cars keeping the full output. Land Rover has not said which markets the Defender Dakar’s 635 PS applies to.
What is still open
Registrations of interest are being collected now and reservations open in early 2027, with the full technical specification due alongside the 2027 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. Price, production volume and market availability are all still unannounced. The reveal was fronted by Mark Cameron, Defender’s managing director, who moves to run JLR’s North American business on 1 September.
The five-door Defender and the volume seller of the range, 5,018 mm long with five, six or seven seats. The UK line-up runs D250 and D350 diesel mild hybrids, a new P380 petrol mild hybrid and a plug-in hybrid with 48 km of electric range. From GBP 64,315.
The short-wheelbase three-door Defender, 4,583 mm long and 435 mm shorter than the 110, with up to six seats. Sold in the UK with D250 and D350 diesel mild hybrids and the P380 petrol mild hybrid, and with no plug-in option. From GBP 58,655.
The long-bodied Defender and the only one with eight seats, 5,358 mm long on the 110's wheelbase with 340 mm of extra rear overhang. The UK range is the D350 diesel mild hybrid and the P380 petrol mild hybrid, plus a five-seat Outbound. From GBP 84,250.
