Pretoria, South Africa – Monday, 20 January 2025: Defender OCTA – the performance hero of the unstoppable Defender family – will form the basis of Defender’s Dakar and FIA World Rally Raid Championship competition challenger from 2026, showcasing its extreme performance credentials in the world’s toughest off-road events.
Unstoppable all-terrain capability and strength are at the core of every Defender and these attributes are essential for any rally-raid competition vehicle. Selecting Defender OCTA – the fastest and most capable Defender ever made – as the basis for the British adventure brand’s rally-raid programme was a natural choice.
Defender will run a two-vehicle entry of competition-spec Defenders across the full five rounds of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) under the ‘Stock’ category for production-based vehicles, and a three-vehicle entry in the championship’s halo event, the Dakar Rally, from 2026.
New regulations aimed at making the ‘Stock’ category significantly more competitive will be implemented by 2026, as the FIA and Dakar organisers respond to the growing popularity of high-performance 4x4s and SUVs. It’s the increased performance these new regulations permit that make the Stock category perfect to authentically demonstrate Defender’s extreme durability and capability.
Mark Cameron, Defender Managing Director: “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.”
James Barclay, JLR Motorsport Managing Director: “Defender competing in Dakar will be an incredibly exciting challenge. We had a vision for the future of production-based vehicles in rally-raid, so it has been incredibly positive to align with the ASO, FIA and other manufacturers and work collaboratively to create the new regulations for the ‘Stock’ category. We now have the right platform to authentically demonstrate Defender’s capability in the biggest challenge in off-road motorsport. Ahead of us is a year of detailed preparation, testing and learning to be ready for Dakar 2026. The team is already well under way and we are very much looking forward to competing in both Dakar and W2RC – the world’s toughest off-road events.”
At the core of Defender OCTA – and retained for the competition vehicles – is its robust D7x (for extreme) body architecture. Based on the lightweight aluminium monocoque construction that forms the basis of every Defender, it is three times stronger than traditional ‘body-on-frame’ designs and provides impressive torsional rigidity.
This inherent robustness, coupled with Defender OCTA’s bespoke geometry and kinematic design, made it the obvious choice to underpin Defender’s Dakar programme. The specially prepared competition vehicles will share Defender OCTA’s body architecture, transmission and driveline layout – as per the Dakar and W2RC’s regulations – to showcase its unstoppable capability and durability. Power will be provided by Defender OCTA’s 4.4-litre twin turbo V8 engine.
An exhaustive Defender competition test and development programme is already well under way. It will culminate in test events and a full team launch later this year ahead of Dakar and the FIA World Rally Raid Championship in 2026.
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