YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE

1. The last Defender drove like a tractor. What’s changed?

THE BADGE SAYS “DEFENDER” BUT this is hardly a like-for-like replacement, as we’re discovering on a three-day, 675-kilometre expedition through Namibia. Engineering boss Nick Rogers, who’s joined us on the journey, spells out how difficult it’s been to replace the Defender: about 15 different serious proposals were investigated over the past few decades, he says, and all were rejected.

The problem, of course, is that the SUV market has changed since early Land Rovers ventured forth into Africa. A tough working vehicle has turned mainstream. SUVs are now family cars, rather than go-anywhere transport for explorers, adventurers, farmers, and the military.

So, the new Defender has to blend refinement with ruggedness. Its envelope of capability has to be even broader than the usually expansive Land Rover norm. We do hundreds of kilometres in Namibia on fast gravel roads and firmly packed sandy tracks, where an old Defender would have bucked like a bronco, beam axles bouncing, body-on-frame chassis shuddering, slow steering struggling. Little wonder they felt a bit like tractors. Inventor Maurice Wilks saw it as a type of tractor, for use on the land as much as the road — one reason why a central driving position was briefly envisaged.

THE NEW DEFENDER RIDES BEAUTIFULLY. WHOEVER THOUGHT WE’D SAY THAT ABOUT A DEFENDER?

The new one feels far more like the latest Range Rover than an old Defender. And little wonder. It uses a strengthened and largely bespoke version of Land Rover’s D7 platform, an aluminium monocoque that underpins the latest Range Rover. It has fully independent suspension and our test cars have air springs (standard on the 110, optional on the short-wheelbase 90) for a more cushioned