Land Rover re-invents the Defender convertible

Land Rover’s Works Bespoke department was opened last year and the V8 Soft Top is its newest offering. It’s the first convertible Defender since 2016 and takes inspiration from NAS – or North American Specification – Defender of the 1990s, notable for its V8 engine, open roof and external rollcage.

It’s very much inspired by that car rather than a recreation. There’s a level of bespoke detailing alien to the production line cars and a pricetag to match, but we’ll come to that later. The 1990s car didn’t have the 18-inch Sawtooth alloy wheels and LED headlights of the new Classic. The Caraway and Perlino DuoTone leather trim is a stranger to those rough-and-ready cars of the past, too. Personalisation is the name of the game with the Works Bespoke department.

There are four hood colours to choose from, with black being standard and Sand, Dark Khaki and Navy being the alternatives. The hood can be semi-opened on the move, with additional fixings (compared to previous Defenders) to keep it in place at motorway speeds. In addition to the four hood colours, there are 49 paint colours, and if that’s not enough there’s a match-to-sample service for an individual finish.

Grilles, door handles and bonnet scripts can also be personalised, and there’s the option of 16-inch Wolf alloys in place of the aforementioned Sawtooth wheels. Inside, customers can spec their Defender with a choice of five monotone or eight duotone leather colourways, and a range of accessories including a wine cooler and a surfboard rack. There’s a broad target demographic for you...

Off-road capability hasn’t been forgotten, though; this is a Defender, after all. It has Bilstein dampers and Eibach anti-roll bars along with revised spring rates that work in league with four-piston Alcon 335mm (front) and 300mm (rear) brake discs. Headlining the mechanical package is a 410PS (301kW) 5.0-litre petrol V8 driving through an eight-speed ZF gearbox.

It’s important to note that the original Defender hasn’t been put back into production. Each one of the Classic Defender V8 Works Bespoke Soft Tops (to bestow its full and rather long name) is based on a car built between 2012 and 2016, with hundreds of hours of work to breathe new life into it.

And the price for this made-to-order approach? It starts from £234,000. We wonder how many will really be subjected to the salty sea air of a surfing trip. Maybe a jaunt to Waitrose with the Evoques might be more in keeping for something so precious.