Defender OCTA to lay the groundwork for Dakar and FIA W2RC
Land Rover seems to be gearing up to make moves in the world’s toughest off-road events starting this year. If you recall, the British marque announced at the end of 2024 that its Defender SUV will be the official vehicle partner to the Dakar starting in 2025.
The company further said that the Defender Works team will compete in the event in 2026. Still, details about that were kept under tight wraps until now. Announced earlier this week, Land Rover will participate in the Dakar and the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) from 2026 with a new competition-spec vehicle derived from the robust OCTA model.
That said, the Defender will run a two-vehicle entry of competition-spec Defenders across the full five rounds of the FIA (W2RC) under the ‘Stock’ category for production-based vehicles and a three-vehicle entry in the championship’s Dakar Rally.
The revised rules meant to improve competitiveness in the "Stock" category will be implemented by 2026. This move by the FIA and Dakar organisers is in response to the rising popularity of high-performance 4x4s and SUVs. The increased performance allowed by these new regulations makes the Stock category an ideal platform to showcase Defender's durability and capability.
As a refresher, the Defender Octa features a 4.4-litre twin-turbo mild-hybrid engine with 467kW and 750Nm of torque. Despite its hefty weight of over 2,500kg, it hurtles from 0-100km/h in 4.0 seconds before hitting the limiter at 250km/h. The transmission comes courtesy of an 8-speed automatic gearbox.
“Taking on the most demanding rally-raid event in the world represents the ultimate test of our most extreme Defender to date. We know that Dakar will be an immense challenge, but Defender OCTA combines huge performance with characteristic Defender capability and durability—the perfect foundations for what I’m confident will be a highly competitive rally-raid vehicle," says Mark Cameron, Defender Managing Director.
As far as the Land Rover Defender's capabilities are concerned, the involvement of the OCTA variants in this competition will serve as a great platform to showcase its excellent durability and capability, and it will be interesting to see how it performs in its respective class.
At this stage, the marque is busy testing and developing the Defender for competitions. This will lead to test events and a full team launch later this year.
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