One of the things they didn’t teach me in fancy pants design school is what it’s actually like working inside a real OEM studio. Covering all the fundamentals and necessary vocational skills, as well as giving you a broader understanding of creating your own designs at a macro level doesn’t leave a lot of time for the crushing reality of being a junior designer. I thought working life would involve rolling into the studio about 10am, sitting around sipping espressos, comparing black turtlenecks and cattily discussing what had hit the BMW Instagram overnight. Start work after a leisurely lunch, sketching into the evening before having an existential crisis about not drawing anything good that day. Imagine my horror when my manager told me I was expected to be in the studio around 8.30am, preferably not reeking of booze. There’s an 8.30 in the morning now?
The L663 Defender was already well on it’s way by the time I got my top-level security pass at Gaydon. The exterior and interior design was frozen and it was slowly making its way through the torturous realization phase of the design process towards production and public reveal. Although the long-lead-time tooling parts such as the body-in-white and lighting had been signed off, there was still a lot of detail crap to nail down and get right. The rear lights kept coming back from suppliers looking like cheap eBay led strips with bright hot spots rather a continuous ring of illumination. The alpine glass in the cant rail curled up at the edges because of its curvature. The darker paint finish on the X trim front and rear bumpers wasn’t adhering properly. Sitting in tedious meetings with supplier reps and engineers sorting this stuff out isn’t the watch wanker lifestyle I was sold.
One of the other things I was responsible for was maintaining an up-to-date set of ‘master’ images to be used in design reviews. Consisting of studio standard front three quarter, rear three quarter and side views; if anything changed in trim or finish specifications these had to be updated in Photoshop. They were a constantly moving target subject to the whims of the product and marketing teams, color, materials and finish (CMF) designers and the status of parts in development. If Gerry (McGovern) or Massimo (Frascella) wanted to see what the HSE trim level would look like with matte black door handles, it was my job to make sure the images reflected what they wanted to review. For expedience and convenience, you only alter what you need to. The same images are reused over and over again to ensure visual consistency – you don’t want to be reviewing a different render each week. I also used those images to work on proposals for (redacted) and (redacted) versions; chief designers only want to see what’s changed on something they are already familiar with.
Designers Have OPINIONS
A big part of trim levels is wheel options, and hoooo boy do designers have OPINIONS about those. Wheels are like a fashion accessory; pick the right one and the outcome is joy. Pick a duffer and you get misery. Wheels are a right pain to design. You set up actions in Photoshop to make sure you get the spoke angles correct and don’t accidentally draw a rotating portal to hell. All of us in the studio knew the new Defender looked its best on the 18” steel wheel (internally named ‘Steely Dan’) and people were going to lose their minds when they saw it. Marketing’s problem was the steelie was a no-cost option in the wheel lineup and not another expensive optional alloy. The steel wheel stayed in the product mix, but it’s only available on four-cylinder cars because the six-cylinder versions have bigger brakes so it doesn’t fit.
Launched at the Frankfurt show in 2019, the new Defender has been on sale for four years now, and I’ve personally known it for about eight, although staggeringly I’ve yet to drive one. Because I live in a company town I see them all over the place, but it doesn’t make me wistful like an old flame because that would mean out of a long line of ex-girlfriends, one of them had been cloned, which is mildly terrifying. No, it’s more a sense of regret because nearly every Defender I see is a high-end model in a subtle metallic on big alloy wheels, probably costing the thick end of seventy or eighty grand (except not because they’re on a company car scheme but still you get my drift). The steel wheels are a fun call back to the original L316 Defender, a vehicle designed with the express purpose of bashing the brains out of British squaddies bouncing across Salisbury Plain on training exercises. Gerry is not one for retro or heritage influences, so the new Defender being premium and flush and modern isn’t surprising. This is a criticism I have seen made about the whole of the Land Rover range in general, and the Defender could stand apart a bit by tying it visually closer to its beloved predecessor.
I’m Not Giving It Live Axles, So Bore Off With That
I’m not talking about redesigning the whole thing with a ladder frame, pig iron axles, the powerplant from an oiler and locking hubs or whatever other chunks of Victorian railway engineering those wrong-uns on the forums were bleating constituted a REAL DEFENDER. Those inbreds can take their three-fingered farm hands to the Ineos dealership and sign a big check for a Grenadier. I’m giving my Defender a small update to the glazing, making it look tougher and more down to earth. First of all, let’s look at some classic Defenders to get our eye in and give ourselves a reminder, as if one were needed, of one of the all-time iconic British automotive designs:
Let’s Make One For Me
I’m going to be basing my update on this, the Hard Top which in 90 and 110 forms is the cheapest and most basic Defender you can buy new, and as a bonus comes with the steel wheels:
On the doors it’s simply a matter of not painting the pillars black, giving a small cost saving. It emphasizes the fact doors are all one stamping and looks tougher. With the third side window, I’ve changed it from a flush, bonded piece of glass to a more traditional window held in place with a rubber seal. Think it looks a little plain? I agree. Let’s fancy it up a bit.
Much better. With a bigger vehicle like an SUV, introducing color breaks and graphics can work wonders in hiding the bulk. I don’t think retro for the sake of retro is always a good design choice, but used appropriately and sensitively it can be useful in giving your design more emotional appeal. I’ve stolen the graphics from the County package Land Rover appeared to offer last year that has now disappeared from the configurator. Perhaps they didn’t sell any (unlikely) or Gerry just hated it (much more likely).
You don’t want people seeing the dead bodies of your enemies you’re going to bury in the woods? Here at Autopian Design Studios we’re discretion fifth (after safety third and customer service fourth) so this is a 110 Hard Top with the new door glass arrangement.
A Defender For Adrian
When it came to the L316 Defender, not having any interest in off-roading I always preferred the 110 over the 90. Before I bought the Ferrari I was considering a late 110 in black with the Sawtooth alloys, until I realized they were climbing in value by the week and I’d have to install a rabid Alsatian in the passenger seat to bite anyone interested in shipping it to eastern Europe without my permission. With L663 a 90 is what I would have if Matt would stop sending my constant emails about a company car into his spam folder [Ed note: Until I’m allowed to take the Isuzu-powered Lotus Elan from the parking lot, no one gets anything – MH]. Below is what that would look like with the same updated glazing.
Not exactly me though is it?
Alright, that looks more suitable for the stylish goth-about-town, or perhaps a continent-crushing road trip to M’era Luna. These were all done over Land Rover press images, but in the studio those wouldn’t have been created until a few months before the launch. Instead, we used a configurator set up in Autodesk VRED set up by the visualization team from the latest production data. It allows you to select any of the current color, trim and wheel combinations on a car and render it up from a series of prescribed camera angles.
This is similar to the configurators you play with on an OEM website, but much more sophisticated and for internal use only, and unlike online versions it doesn’t send a load of data about potential customer choices to the marketing team. It’s a massive time saver for hard pressed junior designers who might have to quickly knock out a whole series of images so the expensive watch wearer-in-chief can decide on the final spec for their company car, which would inevitably end up with every optional extra and the biggest available alloy wheel anyway.
All images unless otherwise stated courtesy of Land Rover Media.
I am counting the new Defenders I see. So far, I’m at 7 I believe, and exactly one had steelies, which is really a shame, because they look best in my opinion too. That one the best though, because it was Panga Green, with the roof rack and possibly the stronger bumper. Did JLR discontinue the roof rack and bumper packs by the way? It was the only way they looked good to me.
All still available as far as I know.
I checked, and yes, the roof rack is available, but I couldn’t find the bumper in the configuratior. Maybe it’s market thing. This is in Europe, if that means anything
On the UK configurator it’s at the end in the exterior accessories.
Maybe I just missed it. Thanks
Every single one I’ve seen has had the rack and packs on. (Mostly in Tucson, but a couple in Oklahoma City)
The faux ladder. What else needs to be said. The faux “ladder”.
These cars are perfect for jaunts down to the grocery store, here in Park City. Pass.
It’s a ladder that allows you to get on the roof. There’s nothing faux about it.
I really want to like the new Defender, I really do, but when I look at it all I see is something that would have looked great as a concept car back in 2004. It’s something about the hooded headlights and the individual tail lights I think.
The steel wheels are definitely the best look on it though.
We are supposed to the the upside-down “LEWIN” licence plate, right? RIGHT?
I’m waiting for Lewin to notice it.
The word “notice” was somehow missing in place of the duplicate “the”. But let’s wait together anyway.
I can’t believe I missed this
The roof and pillars being the same color as the lower body on the four-door reminds me of a Cerberus-era Jeep, I’m sorry to say, but with the white roof, the new windows and body-colored pillars really pop. The effect’s even better on the two-door. (Also, no ridiculous-looking “floating pillar”, though the Hard Top doesn’t appear to be afflicted with it anyway.)
Also, I see your Sisters of Mercy reference, and I appreciate it.
My favorite feature of the new Defender is the steel wheels. Sadly, aside from the one sitting on the fake mountain at the local dealer, I’ve not seen a single one in the wild with the steelies. I think slightly more frustrating is that I haven’t seen any aftermarket clones of the design that fit my GX470. The steel options for the GX are honestly ho-hum, but could be glorious if someone just copied the Defender design (which enough minor changes to avoid a lawsuit).
I think part of the issue is LR have concentrated on supplying the higher margin models.
Yeah, that does seem to be the case, plus it seems like anyone buying one wants a fancy one, as all I see driving around are loaded V8 models.
A neighbor has one with steelies, they really do look fantastic in person.
Now say that louder for the people in the back! Finally someone said it. Also, where were all those people when the old Defender was still being sold? God knows hardly any of them put their money where their mouths were.
Before L663 launched the Pistonheads forums were full of this sort of hairy handed lunacy.
“ALSO IT SHOULD BE NO MORE THAN £25K”
My man, an L316 in 2016 was nearly £40k.
Why not offer 22″ Steelies as a pricey upgrade? Fit the big brakes, add more of the “looks tough”, cost doesnt have to equal price…
How much would those weigh? I’ve thrown out my back just thinking about changing one.
They have, on the aforementioned County pack, offered a 20″ alloy that looks identical to the steelie.
Just personal opinion, but I’ve always felt like the new Defender should have been labeled as a next-gen Discovery — and let the Defender marque be quietly put out to pasture under the crushing weight of modern safety, fuel-economy and emissions standards. There’s simply no room left for simplistic metal tubs on a ladder frame with a rudimentary cab attached — which is fundamentally all the Defender really was, as a descendent of the Series designs. It never had much in the way of proper safety structure above the frame, save for its own mass. Serious off-roaders were forever beefing up the structure for the sake of rigidity and safety.
Meanwhile, ever since the original Range Rover and the Discovery 1 that was descended from it, Land Rover had been revising the platform to have a real safety-engineered body atop a frame. And that was still a far cry from the modern engineering that goes into the unibody designs of today. The Defender was an anachronism decades ago; it was a Series-style body riding atop the classic Range Rover/Disco 1 suspension and running gear. It was fun and nostalgic, especially in the short-wheelbase format. But the future was already defined in the (already-aging) classic Rangie & Disco. And the Discovery was positioned suitably as the less-posh, more practical Land Rover model.
So here we are well into the 21st century, and between market demands and automotive regulations in most of the developed world, there’s really no place left for the Series/Defender type of vehicle. What took over are things like modernized Land Cruisers and what the Discovery (and technically, the original Range Rover) started out as. If Land Rover wants to build a less-posh/highly capable off-roader, there’s a lot of heritage in the Discovery name to build on. (Oh, and if a funky raised roofline and alpine windows define an off-roading “Land Rover”, well, then a proper Discovery has those in spades, too. So there.)
You’re not wrong, and there’s a lot I can’t say that would corroborate what you’re saying.
JLR, likely, in a rush to get models out and capitalize on the popularity of the nameplate felt that this would be an easy win for nostalgia-based-sales. And goodness, based on their yo-yo financial statements, they needed a win.
The Disco can kind-of stand on its own, especially with the Disco Sport tagging along on the name (since it doesn’t really share anything mechanical with it’s bigger name-sake). It represents the ‘family-friendly’ market of JLR.
Despite JLR standing in a market where everyone else can’t seem to have monstrous margins on luxury SUVs: JLR having so few vehicles (as compared with larger marques) and each one having its own unique platform likely leads to much of their erosion of profitability & reliability – think of how much engineering needed to go into developing a unique platform for the Evoque, RR, and Disco? (even if much of it was borrowed from it’s former Ford days)
JLR isn’t big enough for that (and who would want to commute to Gaydon? Let alone find an actual parking space there!).
Heck, the Gen1 Evoque was a steel unibody chassis, whilst the Disco at the time was a unibody-on-frame, and the bigger RRs were a separate aluminum one. You can’t even share tooling at that point!
People moan that Suzuki did it with the Jimny, not realizing a) Suzuki are a much bigger company than JLR and b) the new Jimny is based on the old one, which was in production for over 20 years.
Agree. That was my first though upon seeing it. The Disco used to be so unique and tough looking, now it’s just a featureless blob that at a glance could be confused with any number of generic crossovers.
Unfortunately, even very much improved, it still reminds me too much of a Dacia Duster.
> preferably not reeking of booze
It being england, he wisely made it only a suggestion.
Most pubs don’t open until 11, so it required dedication to be plastered at 8:30 am.
Please form an orderly queue in front of ‘spoons, else grab your bag of cans from Tesco.
Remember when pubs didn’t open until 6pm on a Sunday, so you only had four hours to get plastered? Good times.
I miss the galvanized steel trim. That black stuff looks like plastic that will break the fist time you hit a tree.
The new Defender is much tougher than the old one. But I’m not sure it looks it, which is what I was trying to remedy.
It worked, at least to this on-roading-all-the-time city slicker.
And I’m sure those wheels will remain pristine since they’ll be dangling off the shop’s lift most of the time.
How do you define tougher? More skid plating? More reliable engine and electrics?
You are correct that the old one looks tougher. I think the smoother curves and plastic trim makes it look more like a normal crossover rather than a rough and tumble military or adventure vehicle.
Point taken
I was actually thinking of the Land-Rovers that were made by Rover and designed to be repaired where they had broken down.
I don’t know anyone who had one of the later models, there were a lot of alternatives by then.
Cue the debate on whether easy to fix or never needs fixing is tougher.
Granted , a vehicle as basic as a series L-R is probably illegal in most of the world.
The steel wheels are indeed best, but I just don’t know what to do about those cartoon-eyes headlights.
I love the nose as it reminds me of a modern Honda Element.
If I could chose one thing to change of the Defender, it’d be that I’d have Honda redesign it to make a second generation Element of it.
fond memories of an orange Element with a decal on the back window declaring it the ORNGCR8
The story is Honda saw Rover’s designs for the Freelander, and then went off and did the CR-V. Don’t know if it’s true or not.
“I could do better” – 6yo with a crayon
You know, all the BS about this color and this window and whatever disappoints me. I have a 2022 Defender 90X. I got it to replace an older Range Rover and a 97 Defender ST. It is #9 in a series of Defenders and Series vehicles I have had since the 70’s. I thought, “Finally I could have a field vehicle with tech, not a tractor with a nice body!” They did put some nice tech into the vehicle. The fail is, the Alternator and the battery combo are woefully inadequate. I have had the vehicle for just under two years now and am looking at the 4th battery replacement! The alternator cannot charge it up unless you drive it a couple of hours. They made huge design mistakes. The draw every time you open the door, with the vehicle parked, is 10 amps for 10 minutes! All the tech boots up every time you open the door. I am a geologist, I go out in the field nearly every day, jumping in and out. The battery and alternator just are not up to it. I have to carry a jump starter. No, I am actually embarrassed by the big bright red calipers and the light that puts an image of the Defender on the ground when you open the door. I can’t get steel wheels to fit, because then it would cover up the stupid bright red calipers. How can they claim it is an off road vehicle if it cannot keep the battery charged for a day in the field or have actual field wheels fitted. Alloy wheels off road is not a great idea, unless off road means a mall parking lot.
That sounds awful, what a disappointment
“How can they claim it is an off road vehicle if it cannot keep the battery charged for a day in the field?”
Same way they claim a Jeep Renegade is an off road vehicle. By lying.
Most modern cars don’t like being in an ‘ignition on, engine off’ state for more than a couple of minutes. My 2011 Range Rover Sport was the same and that had two batteries. Likewise my Mini gives you a warning as well if you don’t start the engine and that only has a couple of small LED displays. Just leaving it ticking over should be enough. When the Range Rover went flat after me being away for three weeks I was advised to just leave it running outside the house for an hour to charge it up. Land Rover under specifying components is not a new thing, but the platform is well understood and developed by now so maybe you got a bad one (again not unheard of).
Sounds like a four cylinder hard top might have been a better choice for your work because then you could have steel wheels.
I actually have fitted a volt gauge and watched the charging system struggle. This problem is running rampant through the community (even my wife’s Evoque is on its second battery and less than a year old). There is a service advisory about some of the tech not necessarily turning off (Near field sensing module). Some of the tech comes on if anybody is nearby, let’s say in an airport parking lot hits the unlock on their car fob. It wakes up all the nearby cars to see if it is their master or not. It can flatten your car’s battery without you even being around by that happening 100 times a day. If they had done any kind of load analysis they would have offered a higher capacity alternator with the trim level. Again not exactly rocket science and one more thing to upcharge you for. My old 2011 Range Rover would also die after a time from its older tech sucking it dry, but it took a week. I usually do not stay in one place for that long. It was lucky the time I did, I had a large power supply for the survey rovers’s base station to hot up the battery. Yes the tech is cool, but they really need to think the electrical systems out better if they are going to delude people they can go out on safari in it. Going back to Namibia in April for a project. Guess what I am being given to drive; a POS Toyota Hilux (they are not as reliable as folks believe, especially the new ones). You cannot even rent a Defender there. I have only seen under a half dozen in country.
Insert my usual “I’m shocked, shocked I tell you’ facetious comment here, but I’m really not. I guess the most I can say on the matter publicly is there are lot of institutional problems at JLR.
Is it possible to get a larger capacity alternator that fits the mounting points?
You just bought the wrong trim, although granted the battery thing seems like an actual issue (I’ve gotten a “low battery start car” warning a couple of times when I’m on the beach fishing but if you keep the car locked and only go through the back door the infotainment doesn’t turn on from what I can tell) but everything else you mentioned wouldn’t be an issue with a P300 and steel wheels. I’d have steel wheels if not for my wife having the idea that Land Rovers are supposed to be posh, she was absolutely dumbfounded when she found out I had ordered my 110 the manual leather/cloth seats. She didn’t appreciate my answer “Because it’s a Defender?” when she asked me why I did that lol. She does appreciate being able to drive onto the beach instead of carrying everything over the dunes though and I appreciate not having to worry about destroying my elbow on a door frame. (I learned how to drive at the ripe old at of 13 in my dads ’68 109 SIIa and I’ve been in and around Land Rovers my entire life)
I had a girlfriend with a Series 2 (two and a quarter litre?). I knew she was a keeper. She broke my heart, when I still had one.
Correct, Land Rover went to the 2.25 litre with the Series II (Series I was 1.6 and 2.0 litre’s). I wouldn’t worry too much about her, you probably dodged a bullet. Series owners tend to have more than a few screws loose, I should know. I have one sitting in my garage next to my XKR. Fuck, I really do have a problem don’t I?
I wanted that trim level since I was replacing two for one. I was somewhat misled that I could have the best of both worlds, tech and ruggedness. I have worked in the aircraft field earlier in my career. When we add something that consumes electricity we have to do a load analysis. Not exactly rocket science. You just add up how many amps you draw and what you can produce and store to give you a reserve. The target is not to go over 70% of rated output. Well they completely forgot this arcane bit of engineering lore. At least My Series vehicles came with a hand crank to start it if the battery failed or all the Lucas smoke dribbled out. It is also a total engineering fail to make the brakes with huge BRIGHT RED calipers so you cannot fit the steel wheels. There is such a thing as dual calipers. Not having a field mode, that didn’t activate all the tech when you open the door is also a fairly huge engineering mistake. Even the P300’s have this issue. Less time should have been spent on the total poser stuff and a bit more attention to the core vehicle would have been a better path. BTW, the Land Rovers are not the only ones suffering from tech sucking the life out of the battery/electrical system. Apparently the entire industry is making the same mistakes. I am at a total loss on what to replace it with. I don’t want to have to go back to driving a tractor 5 or 10 hours to the field site anymore. Pretty much any new “Offroad Vehicle” is suffering this amnesia on how to make one. On the other hand, it is superb off road, aside from this tiny issue.
Your best bet is to contact the folks over at Genesis and ask them to come up with a dual battery kit like the one they have for the Wrangler JL. I have one and the quality is top notch. I have zero faith in JLR, or any OEM for that matter, fixing bubus like this one.
I just went and made my own. I used a 20AH LiFe in a pelican box. It has a dual use, powers the D-RTK-2 (elaborate survey station) unit and hots the battery when I actuate the relay and the box is plugged into the car. There is almost no room under the rear deck to put anything larger than 20AH and that is a tight squeeze. Adding a second battery is a solution, but really it is somewhat cheesy that I have to do that. Then there is the alternator is not really up to charging anything quickly. The other solution is use 4 or so smaller batteries (think 10-15 AH)distributed in the nooks I can shoehorn them into. The problem with that is now, 4 failure points. There is very little room to add anything under the hood, even the regular battery is under the passenger seat and the rear deck has the 48V batteries for the mild hybrid system. It is rather why I have a battery in a Pelican box as my choice. I can also hot that back up with a couple of solar panels I have. You can see this snowballs to a lot of stuff that shouldn’t be needed in the first place. Second batteries have their issues as well. The Hilux I had last year in South Africa melted the posts off the second battery for no particularly good reason. That and it had a really annoying warning tone that went off anytime you went over 80 KPH! No way to turn it off. Thank god for EarPods noise cancelling function. 9,522 kilometers of that nonsense.
That system sounds like a bit of a nightmare, yes… way too complex to solve something that should have been a non-issue from factory.
as a completely different approach – anyone makes a beefed up alternator? Could that solve the issue?
I was on the beach yesterday and I did confirm that the infotainment system did not boot up when the vehicle was locked and I went through the rear door, although I suppose I could pop the multi meter on the battery terminals to confirm what the draw is when you open the rear door when the vehicle is locked.
I have 18″ rims on my P300 S because it comes with smaller brakes, I specifically spec’d it that way as I was buying it with the intention of using it off road and I wanted more sidewall.
I’ve also driven the Dynamic X, and it is definitely more road focused with the 400hp, big brake kit and dynamic mode that will stiffen up the air springs.
Also as an aside, my friend has a P300 with full leather interior heated/cooled seats and everything else. Thankfully JLR doesn’t limit you on packages when it comes to motor choices.
I like it. I’ve always had a soft spot for roof portals.
The subtle implied insult in the comment of that panning shot.Love it
Hey Adrian, have you ever worked with Amanda H in creative? I’ve worked with her a few times, although I’m not in that department myself. I might pop your CDSID in tomorrow and say hello – small world! 🙂
No I think she started after I
was unceremoniously booted at the start of the pandemicleft.I saw all those designs in that lovely shade of blue and was thinking to myself “This is it! Adrian’s finally come around to color!!”
Then I saw the black one. Jesus wept.
I know, the black one is great isn’t it.
So, you hang out on the dark web and worship William Gibson?
Worse than the dark web. mIRC and Livejournal.
Ha! That is so bad (and funny). I’ll let you get back to your Gothip and working on your moontan. Liked article BTW, as always.
None more black. Just don’t touch it.
Yes.
From someone who used to own a black Disco 1.
That he traded a black Jeep TJ for.
Although, I’ll grant that intense shades of blue top my list of non-black car colors, if I want something flashy. And deep wine-reds/maroon shades are good. But the popular arrest-me reds — not so much, sorry.
Are you a Visigoth or an Ostrogoth?
Worse. I’m a Netgoth.
Getting designers involved is how Land Rover lost its way. Hurn Proving Ground is all that is needed to do it proper. In the late seventies, eight of my fellow junior high students and myself piled into the professors highly petinaed 1962 Land Rover Series IIA 109 5 door station wagon on several occasions for geology field trips. Not a plush transport, and that’s how it’s supposed to be! The spare on the hood amused me, in that it was more dry rotted than the others.
What about that goofy super thick C or C+ pillar thing that they have? It seems to have vanished in your designs. Isn’t that structural?
It is, but the strength is on the inner that you can’t see.
Inexplicable to me is why the V8 models seem to come in only black or dark gray while the cheaper versions have many more colors available.
That palate may be ideal for the Goths among us, but it is annoying for those who like some color.
There are commercial reasons for this I’m not at liberty to reveal.
My guess is that the brightly-coloured (sic) models are there to attract younger buyers who are less willing to pay for the V8. They’re the Joe Camels of the Defender range.
We (the exterior team) wanted some more vibrant colours but it wasn’t our decision to make, and the plant can only manage a certain number of colours in total.
Surely you mean “the other idiots on the exterior team wanted ridiculous non-black colors”
Yeah I went with blue. I would have loved a dark green. The light green doesn’t look right to me. The 75th edition with the matching green rims looks awful.
Pangea Green, which was the hero colour. Friend of mine owns a recovery/haulage business and their recovery 90 is wrapped in red on white steelies. It looks outstanding.
It was only a guess, and it gave me a plausible excuse to describe something as “the Joe Camels of the Defender range,” which was the most important thing.
I don’t understand it either. You can choose the black and dark grey for the cheaper ones too. Why wouldn’t they offer exclusive colors only available at the top dog V8s? Are they saving that for the SVO version that is in the works?
Can you fix the tail lights too? ditch the small outside set and put the inboard set where the tiny ones were, and please for the love of all that is holy keep the turn signal amber.
The smaller outside lights are a legal thing, because of the viewing angles with the tailgate mounted spare.
Yes, put the bigger lights in the place of the smaller outside lights. the small lights just look silly especially when they are duplicating some of the functionality of the bigger lights.
I understand they’re a legal thing, but is their location vertically also about viewing angles past the tyre? They appear a bit lost in the panel, not decisively located anywhere that ties them to other parts of the design. And it pains me that the top one isn’t positioned in the curve of the rear wing haunch like in the old ones.
The split between the two smaller lights lines up with the center of the lower light.
Yeah, the tail-light design is fussy and messy at the same time, although I figured it was like this to A) have a heritage link to the old Defenders and B) for legal reasons.
Also hate the stupid lock-box attached to where the rear side window would be – that’s seriously for wankers and twats who have no idea of good taste. I said it.
At least the new Defender tail lights are a metric crap-ton better than the fugly tail lights I saw on an Ineos Grenadier here in NZ last week – they look cheap and at first I thought it was a GWM, BYD, Mahindra or something. Fugly AF
The lock box is great if you’ve got stuff you want to access from outside the car, like dirty boots or you want to store wet dogs or something without them ruining the interior.
Folks with wet dogs have dog guards and are prepared for wet dogs.
When we had a Series 2 they were much more utilitarian.
It doesn’t really matter though I’ll never own one, they are out of my price range
Judging by the plates, you were trying to make a car for Lewin in there too. Don’t you have to flip the whole car upside down for it to drive in Australia, not just the plates?
We’re not made of money you know.
The man who merrily skips around Europe in a vintage Ferrari says The Autopian isn’t made of money… *Insert goth girl look of incredulity I’m 99.7% sure you’re familiar with here*
Italian jalopy driver food fight!
Certainly not, we goths have enough mutual respect to never do such things.
The other day I turned down my friend’s invitation to a concert I thought was too pricey. He gave me the look you described and said “Dude, you drive a Ferrari.” I said “Dude, I drive a forty-year-old used car.” Biiiiiiig difference!
Noticed that as well. Hope the Oz Bureau was flattered.
He doesn’t even notice me.
Anything that gets rid of that stupid, stupid square thing.
That had happened, but now he’s back as Foreign Secretary.Whoops! Misread that – never mind.
“Pull my finger.” “No. YOU pull MY finger.”
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/160712155524-boris-johnson-david-cameron.jpg?q=w_3000,h_2151,x_0,y_0,c_fill
Ah, the future POTUS and C3PO made of ham.
Lovely sculpture. So lifelike. Just don’t leave it in the sun.
Beavis and Butt-Head, OBE
That may be the comment of the year
It’s optional on the 90, but on the 110 it does hide some of the Body In White that would otherwise be visible. It is very much a Gerry flourish though, like the asymmetrical tailgate glazing on the Discovery 5.
God I hate that asymmetry in the current discovery. It’s a vestigal nod to when there used to be a god damn spare tire mounted back there. But the asymmetry is too subtle to be actually good and purposeful. It looks like a mistake, especially with the license plate there. I’m an architect and we often speak of making things look intentional rather than an accident, and that usually means making sure if things are not symmetrical you better damn well make them look purposefully NOT just slightly off symmetry. Funny enough, I just checked Land Rover USA’s site and there is NOT ONE photo of the rear end of the Discovery anywhere to be found! It’s that bad. And that’s not even speaking about the abysmal proportion of the thing in the back.
If it still had the split tailgate, it would be fine, because apart from the spare it gave you a lower opening to reach into when the bottom half remained closed. But it doesn’t, so it’s dishonest. There were discussions in the studio about changing it for the facelift, but it didn’t happen for various reasons.
Are the italics doing the heavy lifting there Adrian?
Yes.
Also the slightly dumpy look is because it is a full three row SUV, but they’ve tried to hide it.
In this case, the junk in the trunk is a bunch of used diapers ;-). But yeah, the awkward proportions are perplexing, especially when compared to the beautifully designed Velar.
There are kits to fix the number plate absurdity.
https://shop.sixonetwo.co.uk/land-rover-discovery-5/hawke-number-plate-centre-conversion-for-discovery-5-models.html
We knew.
Of course you did; I post for us poor folks who may not know how to fix this mistake.