EVOLUTION TO REVOLUTION
IT’S NO SECRET that the last of the old-school Land Rover Defenders to roll off the production line in 2016 was remarkably similar in design and concept to the original Land Rover launched in 1948. Other than the obvious styling similarities, both had a basic separate chassis with a steel bulkhead, mostly aluminium body panels and live-axle suspension, albeit with leaf springs early on and coils in the later County and Defender years.
Later-model Defenders had advanced turbo-diesel engines, but, other than that, development over 68 years moved at a slow pace, until the recent launch of the all-new model at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show.
The new Defender is undoubtedly a technological tour de force, but how did a company like Land Rover, with such a large range of modern 4x4s – Discovery, Range Rover, RR Velar and RR Evoque – manage to let the Defender simply plod along for so long? And then allow the nameplate to
