Dead quick.
Solihull's dug up the Defender and given it the Works. Simon Hacker answers your Qs
Q What the hell?
Yes, do not adjust your screen: Jaguar Land Rover sent the Defender to the graveyard last year.
But in the spirit of Winston - not Churchill, but that weird undead cat in Pet Sematary - it's back. And it's very scary...
Q As in what, actually fast?
You might say. If you think of the standard Defender JLR last made as a 120bhp tool used to pop into Sodding Chipbury to buy some bailer twine, think again. The Defender Works V8 offers acceleration no amount of string lashed around your midriff can combat. Fast enough to make a ferret look bone idle, it gets to 60mph in 5.6 seconds and, probably for the sake of sparing JLR some tragic headlines, stops at a teeth-rattling 106mph. Thanks to that Works badge, it's the fastest Defender ever, alive or dead.
Q Oh my giddy aunt. How'd they do that?
Simples. Stuff in JLR's naturally aspirated 5.0 V8 and demand it delivers 400bhp at 6,000rpm, alongside 380lb ft of torque at 5,000rpm. To access that, there's an eight-speed ZF automatic, a two-speed transfer box, and, of course, all-wheel drive. The suspension is a live beam axle with coil springs and Panhard rod and anti-roll bar on the front with a live axle, coil springs, A-frame trail arms and anti-roll bar on the back. And to stop, the front brakes are 335mm discs with 300mm on the back and four-piston callipers all round. Footwear is 265/65/R18s all terrains, of course.
Q Sounds like a plan, but why - and why now?
It might look as modern as the Sealed Knot, but this is a slick marketing exercise. While the world continues to hold its breath for the all-new replacement, JLR must have decided the gap is getting dangerously wide (until 2020, apparently), so it needs to do something to remind brand fans that the whole Defendering thing still exists.
Q And how do they do it?
These aren't production-line cars. JLR has assigned the project to Jaguar Land Rover Classic, the subsection of JLR that specialises in reworking past models. It's a limited run of just 150, and the price will depend on the spec of the donor vehicle, though you'll not see change from £90,000 for the shorter 90 wheelbase version. You can contact