Land Rover Defender OCTA.
By Jonathan Campbell
The OCTA is a Defender on steroids, defining it’s own category of vehicle—that of extreme performance on and off road. It might be a beast of a motor but it’s also elegantly refined too. We were invited to its official launch at The Kennels during Goodwood's Festival of Speed to find out more […]
Regular readers will know of my love of the original Defender. The New Defender (as I still refer to it despite the L633 being launched five years ago) is a tremendous modern interpretation of the iconic Defender.
We drove down to Le Mans this year in a highly specced Defender X, Four big lads and all our kit comfortably fitted into it, it was so comfortable that I pretty much slept all the way down. On the way home we were cruising at high speed accompanied by an expertly piloted McLaren and a Porsche 992, they left us after a while. We caught up with them at the next services and found out that the driver of the McLaren was Derek Bell!
So, I’m already a big fan of the L633. I was invited to the launch of the OCTA at The Kennels during the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The OCTA is a Defender on steroids, literally, it’s wider and higher than the standard size, it has a 635 PS (626 BHP) engine sourced from the BMW M5 which rapidly propels this extreme vehicle from 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds. It’s 6D suspension technology is so advanced that this Defender can blast at speed over any terrain from the Nurburgring to the Sahara dessert.
The lucky owners of these cars can specify road or all road wheels and tyres. The road tyres can take the Defender to 170mph dropping to 155mph with the all road tyres. Needless to say most of the cars are being ordered with both sets of wheels and tyres.The all road tyres are specially made for this vehicle by Goodyear, they’re fat. The massive 400mm front discs and Brembo calipers not only look great but will stop this monster in it’s tracks.
It might be a beast of a motor but it’s also elegantly refined too. All the chopped carbon accents are made from recycled carbon fibre. The interior comes with a new burnt sienna aniline leather as standard, with the option of ebony aniline leather or the Ultrafabrics PU in light cloud or lunar.
The seats are special too, they are all new performance seats with more bolsters and integrated headrests. The seats also have a sophisticated body and soul system allowing driver and passenger to not just hear the music but literal feel it through the seat. The seats also have six wellness programmes to help with relaxation or help with cognative responses on the move.
As standard the OCTA can wade up to a metre which considering the current conditions of our roads could come in useful. Select the double snorkels, expedition roof rack and side ladder from the accessories list and the OCTA looks seriously purposful.
The OCTA has defined it’s own category of vehicle, that of extreme performance on and off road. To ensure that the OCTA performs and delivers what it promises it went through 13,960 additional extreme tests. High speed on and off road performance tests to ensure its durability and robustness.
New Defender OCTA’s name is derived from the toughest and most desirable mineral on earth – a diamond – and the octahedral shape that gives their distinctive appearance and durability. This shape also inspired the new signature graphic, which denotes it as the flagship Defender – strong and resilient, yet striking, rare and desirable.
Every Defender OCTA wears a new encircled diamond graphic, including a gloss black diamond within a machined and sandblasted titanium disc on each Signature Graphic panel.
No other vehicle can match it and at approx £160K OTR it’s better value for money than the Mercedes AMG G63 (although I’m a fan of the G-Wagon)
As Sade sang, Welcome to the Diamond Life.
The attention to detail on the OCTA is exceptional which extends to the press pack where one of the shots of the OCTA demonstrating it’s impressive wading ability is a homage to the brilliant 2002 “Hippos” poster from RKCR&YR for the Freelander.
The Obsessive would like to thank the Defender hospitality team for a great day out at Goodwood FOS.
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Images. Jaguar Land Rover Limited
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