Land Rover revamps iconic Defender

There's life in the old dog yet, and Land Rover has proved it with a series of improvements to the Defender.

The styled-by-set-square Defender now has a snazzy new six-speed manual gearbox to make the most of its new 2.4-litre common-rail turbodiesel engine.

The four-cylinder 2.4-litre unit has 265lb ft of torque at just 2,000rpm for superb off-road ability, and permanent four-wheel drive remains standard.

A lower first gear in the six-speed gearbox allows reduced crawl speeds for greater off-road control, while sixth gear is longer than the previous five-speeder's top ratio to make motorway cruising more relaxed.

The most noticeable changes to the Defender are in the cabin, where there's a new dashboard design.

The instruments are borrowed from the Discovery 3 and the centre console now has a storage tray on its upper edge, while two grab handles help the front passenger hang on when driving off-road.

New front seats provide greater support and there are improved head restraints, while the second row of seats in longer wheelbase models can now be ordered with a pair of captain's chairs.

The captain's chairs can also be ordered for the third row, or you can stick with the traditional huge cargo space.

The air-conditioning system has been uprated to cool the cabin in half the time of the previous model.

Prices for the revised Defender will be announced closer to when it's officially launched at the Paris motor show next month.

© Source: original article on topgear