Land Rover Defender Works V8 is a Sexy Stump-Jumping Zombie [w/ Video]

The Land Rover Defender, the last in the long line of boxy, back-to-basics Landies that dated back to the brand’s formation in 1948, went out of production two years ago. However, much the way the Pagani Zonda seems to have more lives than the craziest of cat lady’s collections, Land Rover has decided to reanimate the corpse of its beloved box on wheels, at least on a limited (Read: 150 examples.) basis. And in doing so, it’s endowed it with a whole pile of attitude.

Intended to help celebrate the marque’s 70th anniversary, the Land Rover Defender Works V8 doesn’t look all that different from a normal late model Defender 90 or 110, aside from the special 18” alloy wheels in a style Land Rover calls Sawtooth and a roof, fender flares and other trim items finished in Santorini Black to go with the eight available body colors. But the biggest news is underneath, which is where you’ll find a naturally-aspirated version of the 5.0L Jaguar Land Rover V8 teamed with a ZF 8-speed automatic transmission. With 399 horsepower and 380 lb.-ft of torque on tap, Land Rover says this boxy bruiser will hustle to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds before eventually losing its battle with aerodynamic drag at 106 mph. Unfortunately, none of those figures matter to those of us in North America one iota, as the Defender Works V8, like every Defender since 1998, will be unavailable here due to more onerous safety and emissions requirements. Such is our motoring lot in life…

Source: Land Rover