New Defender OCTA reveal confirmed for July

Land Rover's 'high-performance, all-terrain hero' will be limited to 1,070 cars in the first year

It must feel like high times at Land Rover right now. We’ve barely had time to digest our first proper look at the incoming Range Rover Electric before encountering the next tasty morsel on its testing conveyor belt, the Defender OCTA. Probably the flagship off-roader is less consequential to its maker in the grand scheme of things - but we’re almost certainly not the only ones who like the idea of a Defender pushed to its terrain-conquering limits. Especially when it’s the Range Rover Sport SV's twin-turbo V8 doing the pushing.

While its latest missive has ostensibly been delivered to confirm the date of the new model’s reveal (July 3rd) and boast about its three-year testing regime, really it’s about flagging down the attention of prospective customers - particularly anyone who has been eyeing the Mercedes G 850 with a view to buying. That model may well be electric, but you can be sure that current G-Class owners are at the very top of Land Rover’s wish list when it comes to the business of finding people prepared to pay six figures for a car designed to do its best work away from asphalt.

Accordingly, it is pushing the boat out when it comes to ‘client preview’ experiences. There will be seven so-called Defender Elements events ahead of the OCTA’s unveiling, including ones for the US, Dubai and Japan. As you might imagine, being accepted as Land Rover’s guest for the day grants you privileged access to the car (it promises a ‘curated and immersive journey’ to showcase the OCTA''s various innovations), but, more importantly, it enables ‘clients to finalise the specification of their desired Defender OCTA in a relaxed and informal environment.’ Which almost feels counter-intuitive for the flared wheel arches of a car that has reportedly endured 13,960 grueling tests on top of the existing Defender regime.

To encourage participation (and doubtless to generate FOMO in existing owners) Land Rover has said that ‘just’ 1,070 Defender OCTAs will be made available to UK buyers in the first year of production. Even assuming that number is based on the number of units earmarked for distribution based on global market share rather than a prescribed limit, it ought to do the trick of encouraging anyone who likes the idea of ‘an unparalleled breadth of capability, comfort and composure, whether on-road or off-road’ to not hang around on the sidelines for too long. For the rest of us, we’ll simply have to wait for the summer to see what Land Rover has achieved with its gloves taken off.