Life -size test for the Defender for the Dakar 2026

Life -size test for the Defender for the Dakar 2026


They are crazy these English. The world of essayers knows this. Among the originals of the Union Jack, the Land-Rover test organizers remain the masters and whatever if today the legendary claw is fading for the benefit of Defender, Range Rover, Discovery and Velar. This time, we had an appointment with the backpackers of the Defender range. In South African land at the wheel of an over-vitamin version, with V8 from the Range Rover range, but of BMW origin, developing 635 horsepower under the hood. Without forgetting the diabolical electronic aids, which allow you to pass everywhere, but which, inevitably keep us away from the land of our childhood. Like the famous Land Series IIA, model used in Doctorthis American series created by CBS in 1966 and very quickly exported to Europe, at the time when we only had two channels to watch. Most often in black and white.

There were four heroes in the series. Africa, Clarence, the lion that praised, Judy, La Guenon, and the Gray Land Rover. Inevitably gray because there were few who had a color TV. Each episode was an adventure in itself. At a time when Defender Octa is finally preparing to measure itself at the Dakar with its V8, only Africa could offer the Land Rover family icon as generous, biting, warm, violent, bewitching and brittle.

The American and Asian markets

Dream occasion for Mark Cameron, the Director General of Defender, to dress in pants from storing, shoes, which was called children’s pataugas, on the feet. All posed on a backbating physique, with a retro style straight out of an adventure film from the 1950s. Engine. Action : “Defender will be the start of the Dakar in 2026. We will align three Defender Octa in the stock category, ex-T2. Our first rolls with our three prototypes which will be aligned at the Dakar will be made in France at Château la Tour. The justice of the peace, all-terrain. »»

But before thinking of the Dakar and this category reserved for production cars, Defender had to reveal its V8 Octa version, which is about to be marketed worldwide. Even in France (from € 183,000), despite a castrating policy with a penalty of € 60,000 on this version. “Our main market will be American, but also Asian with China and the Middle East. And obviously British ”, details Cameron. You must therefore be very rich in France, or benefit from a tax address in Luxembourg or Belgium, to escape the blow.

Offer such a beast deserves, and only makes sense if one aims to go crashing where the mountain is still free and where the deserts still frequentable. Game land where the Defender had to test itself, as in this valley north of the Cape, hidden at the end of a long fine gravel track, swallowed at 160 km/h, being guided by the dust released by The 4 x 4 before. Local of an animal reserve, 300 km north of the course, inhabited by some antelopes, coudous and other zebras. A sanctuary protected by rocky concretions, such as primitive pieces of art where it was necessary to try to cross sections with angles of attack offering for only horizon the blue sky and the bite of the sun. A breeze, provided you follow in the footsteps of the instructors. The next day, after joining the road that links Namibia to Cape Town, the idea was to go back down to the sea to face the sand dunes at the bottom of an old dry lake surrounded by a arid plateau inhabited by some ostriches. A geological anomaly.

A 4 x 4 born to face the sand and cut for the large spaces

Basic instruction: lower the tire pressure. Advice from one of the Scottish experts in Defender, who will be next year at Dakar in the audience: “Here, the sand is much more soft and trampular than that of Saudi Arabia. The dunes are not very impressive, but this sand is so fine, so tender, that it sucks you. You will certainly plant yourself at some point. This sand forgives nothing. »» Everything is actually played on reading the field and the ability to not accelerate too much, but not to go too slowly. Avoid ample steering wheel, except when it becomes essential to redouble its movements to escape the planting. “It’s a Momentum matter”, explains the Scottish, sheep farmer in real life. “You must have a song of gesture in mind. »» Obviously everyone will go from their false note. The famous momentum. If well described by Ronnie the Scottish.

A champion, who, with a pilot in perdition, will jump from his back seat in the open rolling to take the wheel, the body stuck between the two front seats, leaving only the pedals to the clumsy. Swearing and laughing with this accent which would make Sir Alex Ferguson pass for a lecturer in Oxford.

But, already, it was time to return to the course, to cross two springboks in grazing, an ostrich a little head in the air, and a male baboon, seated on a stone wall, watching the cars pass, watching for a throw of fruit, before making our Defender Octa. A real 4 x 4 as we said younger, cut for Africa, cut for the great outdoors, cut for the adventure. Africa is its land. Born to face the sand, the protruding rocks. Bush, Fesh-Fesh, stony slopes with aggressive gravel. A land of brave. Sixty years after the first episode of Doctora Defender will challenge the “Dakartari”. And too bad if the route has been avoiding Africa since 2009. The madness of men isolates a little more the heart of this continent every day. It will be the Saudi desert, who also knows how to be cruel. Even for a Defender.

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