Land Rover Defender Octa Review: A Physics-Defying Monster

Jaguar Land Rover has had a pretty mega history with slightly bonkers, special edition cars in the last couple of decades. See the Jaguar XKR-S GT, XE Project 8, F-Pace SVR, Range Rover Sport SVR… just to name a few.

Given the retirement of the wonderful 5.0-litre Jaguar V8 and a gradual embedding of electrification across the Land Rover catalogue of SUVs, it’d have been fair to assume the days of the bonkers JLR car may be over. Delightfully though, the answer to that is “Not yet, at least.”

That brings us to the Land Rover Defender Octa, described as ‘the most extreme’ Defender yet. Flick through the specs, and it’s hard to argue with that.

Though you can still just about have a Defender with an in-house supercharged V8, the Octa takes its power from Germany. Under the bonnet is a BMW S63 engine – you know, the one used in the M5 – with the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 producing a healthy 626bhp and 553lb ft of torque.

Put the Octa on some road tyres and launch it on asphalt, and it’ll crack 0-62mph in four seconds flat. Top speed is electronically capped at 155mph, though we wouldn’t exactly consider that a problem in a near-2.6-tonne 4x4.

That’s one of two big-ticket items for the Octa. The second is the ‘6D Dynamics’ suspension setup as seen on the Range Rover Sport SV.

That replaces roll bars with a hydraulic system that controls the dampers and air springs, in theory giving the Defender a greater breadth of room to both be an off-road monster and on-road pseudo performance SUV.

Pretty much every other element of the suspension system has been uprated in some form or another too. Meanwhile, the front axle has been moved ever so slightly forward, the track widths increased by 66mm front and 68mm, and then wheel arches blistered more than your ankles in new Doc Martens in order to accommodate 33-inches of tyre diameter. It rides 28mm higher, too.

Housed behind lightweight alloy wheels (which look an awful lot like a tribute to a set of OZ Rally Racings) are a gigantic set of brakes supplied by Brembo, the front discs measuring 400mm. Serious stuff, then.

On road, that all translates to an incredibly capable package. The way it picks up speed isn’t so much a pin-you-back scurry of pace but rather as if the Octa has made a deal with gravity itself to effortlessly move you from A to B. Torque delivery is sublime, and even with its turbocharging the BMW unit sounds ferocious at full chat.

When you get to a corner, that uprated Brembo package shines bright. The pedal feels reassuringly stiff, and it defies your brain how late you can jump onto it given this is, again, a 2.6-tonne SUV.

That clever suspension setup does a brilliant job of keeping the body in check too. It can’t perform miracles – ultimately this is a Defender – so you are going to get an element of body roll when you’re pushing on even in Dynamic or Octa mode, but the level of control is mind-boggling. All the more so when, like our test car, the Octa is sitting on Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tyres. We’re very, very keen to try it on a more road-friendly set.

Really, its only slight let down is the touch overassisted electronic steering – although that is more intuitive still than the base Defender.

Take to some low-speed muddy stuff, and the Defender Octa only improves on what the regular car can do. That raised ride height and 6D suspension improves its ability to cover rough stuff, and it’s nice to know an increased wading depth of 1m (up from 900mm) is there. You know, just in case.

Really though, where the Octa truly, truly shines is a place so few will ever actually be taken – high-speed off-roading. With the comically-large Octa button pressed and in the most extreme road, the physics-defying monster within lets loose.

With us trusted on what was effectively a rally stage, it feels almost as fast and composed plowing through mud ruts as it does smooth tarmac. Only with trees significantly blurring either side of you, and leaving you to wonder how on earth the car is preventing you from running out of talent and ending up in them. No wonder it’ll be heading to the Dakar Rally, then.

There’s really not anything on the market you could directly compare the Land Rover Defender Octa with, to be honest. The Mercedes-AMG G63 is perhaps too close in spirit, but the Octa feels more serious than that. The curveball would be an Ariel Nomad, but then that doesn’t have a roof. Or doors. Or anything, really. In a sense, it’s like the Porsche 911 GT3 of the off-road capable performance SUV world – and let’s hope that genre expands.

Downsides to the Defender Octa? Well, you can only have one as a 110, and for an uncompromised Dakar-capable machine, the three-door, lighter 90 could’ve made for an even more interesting base.

There’s also the fuel economy of 12.9mpg we achieved – a far cry from the 21.1mpg claimed. Not that you’ll care. Nor will you care that I don’t really like the forged carbon interior bits, because you may well.

It’s an expensive car, too, setting you back £145,300 before you play with any options – a pretty huge chunk over the next-most expensive Defender 110, the £97,650 P425. Then again, to keep the GT3 comparison going, that’s about the same between that and a 911 Carrera – and people pay it.

Any complaints are simply nitpicking. Simply put, the Land Rover Defender Octa is utterly sublime.