Spectre Defender: Showpiece of the Week
For when the world is not enough...
The Land Rover Defender is famous for many things. Some of them would be familiar to Maurice Wilks, and he'd likely be chuffed at just how long-lived and popular his idea of a utility vehicle for farmers has proven to be. Others possibly less so. Quite what he'd make of the prices now paid for the final iterations is anyone's guess. It's possible to pay up to £80k for a well-equipped, very low mileage model. And that's just in standard format.
If you want a one-off Twisted model, you can add around £20k - for rather lovely T80-spec 130, in this case - or even double it if you'd prefer to have an LS3 6.2-litre V8 doing all the donkey work. Predictably though, the really silly Showpiece-sized sums are saved for the ultra-rare and highly sought after 70th Anniversary cars built (or converted, at least) by Land Rover to run a naturally-aspirated version of JLR's always-invigorating 5.0-litre V8.
We drove the car at its launch and can testify to its enormous, anachronistic appeal. But the fact remains that it was tremendously expensive back then at £150,000 - and now they make a nearly-new Porsche 911 GT3 Touring look cheap. There are two available on PH, both 90s, for £215,000 and £225,000.
Today's biscuit though goes to something even less common. In 2015, Eon Productions approached Land Rover about supplying it with Defender 110s for the Spectre movie. It ended up with 10 (because Hollywood) but decided that the model's humble exterior needed some extensive reworking for the job. This task was apparently shared between the manufacturer's newly created SVO department and long-time Land Rover tuner, Bowler.
Certainly the result befits the latter. The Spectre Defender - also known as "Bigfoot" - comes with enormous 37-inch all-terrain tyres, which are said to have necessitated an independent steering shock absorber to prevent the rack from breaking its mounts under the extra load. Unsurprisingly the arches have expanded with wheels, as has the chassis, where you get a suspension based on Bowler's racing configuration, including long-travel rally-spec springs and dampers, along with Rose joints and bespoke turrets.
Word at the time suggested that all this robust cushioning actually made Bigfoot really rather pleasant to drive - not least because the old Ford Duratorq motor has also been given a thorough Bowler-style going over. You'll have to make do with this one being left-hand drive, of course - not to mention the imposition of front race seats and harnesses - but you also get a winch, roll cage and fire extinguisher system for your money.
Oh, yes - money. Well, you'll need a lot of it. Very nearly £330,000 in fact. Which is a tiny bit hard to justify when you could get this much quicker (and certainly no less tough) Bowler Bulldog and still have the change left over to buy the cheaper of the two Anniversary V8s for getting to and from the shops. But they haven't been in a Bond film. Go big or go home, James. Said Moneypenny never.
I'm all for choice, rarity and interesting one offs but come on..............
Three. Hundred. And. Thirty. Thousand.
Haha. Hahaha. Hahahaha.
The men in the rubber ambulance would need to be called if I even thought his was good value.
I’m sure the same sort of people who will have one of the ‘can’t go anywhere in it’ DB5 Bond replicas would probably be the sort of person to buy this ‘CAN go absolutely anywhere’ ....thing.
Sorry but £330k is surely about £230k more than it’s worth?
But then, who decides what something is ‘worth’...?
- *Well Actually*** , the stalks were first used on the Rover SD1. Then they appeared on all of BL's 'new' products launched in the Michael Edwardes era in the early 1980s - the original Metro, the Austin Ambassador and the Morris Ital, plus the facelifted Triumph TR7. All those models left production within a few years (or, in the case of the Metro, had better interiors with different stalks fitted) leaving the Ninety/One Ten the only car to have them - the Freight Rover and the Range Rover (and the Metro) gained the chunkier stalks from the Montego.
1: Will it be used on a hill-farm in Cumbria?
2: Can you hose the interior out using a pressure washer?
If the answers to the above are no, I seem to remember that it's not a proper Defender.
- *Well Actually*** , the stalks were first used on the Rover SD1. Then they appeared on all of BL's 'new' products launched in the Michael Edwardes era in the early 1980s - the original Metro, the Austin Ambassador and the Morris Ital, plus the facelifted Triumph TR7. All those models left production within a few years (or, in the case of the Metro, had better interiors with different stalks fitted) leaving the Ninety/One Ten the only car to have them - the Freight Rover and the Range Rover (and the Metro) gained the chunkier stalks from the Montego.
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