Land Rover Defender Octa review

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Gaydon goes very large indeed on both performance and 4x4 capability for its very first ultimate Defender

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How does one begin to succintly define a vehicle as multi-faceted as Land Rover’s Defender Octa?

One thing’s for sure: the process might take you down numerous paths. Is the 626bhp Octa the most ambitious product the company has launched since the original Range Rover? In many ways, from engineering to sales, yes, it absolutely is. No Land Rover has ever been conceived with such scope in respect to its all-terrain ability and drivability. Or price.

Could the Octa also be said to have a genetic make-up achievable by blending DNA from the sensational BMW M5 CS with one of McLaren’s supercars and a T1+ Dakar rally-raider, of the sort you’ll have seen competing in the Dakar Rally? Incredible as it sounds, that isn’t far from the truth.

More broadly, is this carbon-adorned Defender for everyday use, family trips away or weekends doing specialised off-road activities? Incredibly, hardware suggest it’s all three.

As for what it is not? At £148,000 even before you get to the limited-release Edition 1 car tested here, the Octa is not an inexpensive car. In terms of price, in the broader Defender line-up it is very much positioned as the Porsche 911 GT3 RS or Lamborghini Huracán STO and is aimed at a similar clientele.

Neither is this car going to be free from quirks in normal driving. One reason why the Octa can happily fire itself down dusty back roads at frightening speeds is because of its new suspension, which makes for tracks 68mm wider than those on the standard and hardly slimline Defender. No matter how expert the chassis tuning, the Octa will need handling with care in a way something humdrum like, say, a Porsche Cayenne Turbo wouldn’t.

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Which brings us to one last point on the subject of what the Octa is and is not. Is it necessary? Unless you see yourself needing to escape from the bad guys by travelling at speed over rough and varied terrain, and you need to do it in comfort and a reasonable level of luxury, then no, of course this car isn’t necessary. And we dare say it will be easier to find chances to explore the full potential of the aforementioned supercars at track days than it will this extra-special Defender, unless you happen to own half the county.

But when did necessity concern cars made with imagination? And it’s this, above all else, that most neatly defines the Defender Octa.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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land rover defender octa rt 2025 headlight 5

The Octa is clearly inspired by rally-raid culture and there’s almost no area of the regular car’s mechanical package that hasn’t been adapted.

Starting at the front, the BMW-sourced 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 is new to the Defender line-up. (The supercharged 5.0-litre in the mainline V8 model will continue to be offered.) It’s essentially the motor from the M5 CS, making an identical 626bhp and 553lb ft – totals never before lavished on a Land Rover designed to go almost anywhere off road, albeit quite slowly. Certainly, ‘hot vee’ is a term we’re not used to using when it comes to the Defender, and the Octa’s mill also benefits from mild-hybrid tech in the form of a 48V integrated starter-generator that exists in place of an alternator and can feed up to 27bhp into the mix.

Forged 20in alloys aren’t something you’d normally expect to find on a Defender, but the Octa isn’t normal. Also, if you want to unlock the car’s potential 150mph top speed, you’ll need to option the 22in wheels and have them shod in the all-season Michelin tyres
Richard Lane
Deputy road test editor

Also note that the Octa’s V8 isn’t a straight transplant from the Range Rover Sport, where it already serves. The intake and exhaust system are quite different and, even compared with the regular Defender, there’s a new oil sump, along with a new, stiffened transmission cradle.

That transmission is the same ZF eight-speed automatic as the Octa’s range-mates’, though downstream of it you’ll find a unique propshaft and larger-diameter driveshafts, while the rear e-differential also benefits from higher-strength steel.

It’s clear that in setting out to be the ultimate Defender, the Octa needed more of everything. More ground clearance and bigger approach and departure angles. More grip and handling dynamism, both on road and off it. More performance, but no less any-surface drivability. More driver appeal everywhere. No compromises anywhere. Chuck out the rulebook and start again.

The suspension is where the Octa’s specific approach really becomes apparent. It gets axle hardware entirely different from a regular Defender’s (longer wishbones, new hubs and uprights, new mountings and bushings and more). As suggested by those unmissable arches, it also sits on tracks stretched by a Herculean 68mm and it rides 28mm higher than a regular Defender, on air suspension that still allows the car to hike itself up or hunker down in line with the selected driving mode.

The axle makeover creates extra capability, sure enough: wading depth rises from 900mm to 1000mm, the maximum departure angle is taken from 40deg to 43deg and ground clearance is an epic 323mm, up from 291mm. Wheel articulation also increases 100mm to 550mm.

But crucially, the added width also allows the Octa’s axles to match those of a normal Defender for roll centre height – and concurrently for the car to keep its roll axis from migrating upwards along with its body profile. So despite standing so much taller than a standard Defender and having more wheel travel to put to use, the Octa has no greater proclivity to roll than the regular car, and that’s before you get to the dampers…

The Octa marks the Defender’s first use of hydraulically cross-linked dampers. They’re semi-active, in effect. With the help of accumulators, each damper is able to exert a little force, rather than simply absorbing it. This is similar to McLaren’s approach with its Super Series cars (so no anti-roll bars). Tenneco is behind the system, which promises to manage roll and pitch with a level of control no street-legal Defender has known.

The Octa is also the first modern Land Rover to come on factory-fitted all-terrain tyres: triple-ply Goodyear Wranglers tougher and more puncture-resistant even than regular ATs (although you can have road-biased Michelins or mid-ranking BF Goodrich all-terrains, if you prefer, as fitted to our Octa).

Naturally, none of this comes for free in terms of kerb weight. Our car came in at 2717kg with its 90-litre tank brimmed (and not forgetting the full-size spare mounted to the side-hinged back door). Mind you, the distribution was a perfect 50:50.

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INTERIOR

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But for the ‘chopped’ carbonfibre trim of Edition 1 Octas and some new, well-shaped, comfortable ‘Body and Soul’ semi-bucket seats (which, like those of the Range Rover Sport SV, have built-in speakers that can broadcast bass-frequency sound directly at your backside), our test car had no performance-derivative cabin frippery at all. Climb up into the cabin and the Defender’s sense of integrity is very much intact.

There is a small but interesting range of upholstery options, with khaki, brown and light grey variously available in Ultrafabrics and semi-aniline leathers. Perceived quality is very high too, from the stitching to the switchgear plastics.

Elsewhere, the usual Defender space and versatility are present. Coming as a 110 model only, the Octa offers four passenger doors, plus the side-opening boot door with a spare wheel attached, which you are likely to have cause to curse in tight parking spaces for how tricky it can make boot access (and may be why so many Defender owners prefer parking nose in). This model is also available with only a five-seat cabin layout, though each and every one of those occupants will have plenty of space to enjoy.

Look carefully and you will find one or two black diamond motifs – the badge ident of the Octa derivative – around the interior, most notably on the drive mode button at six o’clock on the steering wheel (more on which shortly).

Otherwise, the cabin offers lots of useful storage areas, including the open-worked centre console, with its clever hidden sliding tray. There’s even a USB-C port in the dashboard cut-out on the passenger side.JLR’s Pivi Pro infotainment console proves mostly easy to navigate and has useful off-roading display modes. (External cameras help you to judge the extremities of the car when driving over and around obstacles, for example.)

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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How quick your Octa is will to some extent depend on which tyres you specify.

The claimed 3.8sec 0-60mph time is set on the road-ready Michelins – and, we suspect, using a car devoid of its spare wheel and without much fuel in the tank. Our car, wearing its knobby-ish BF Goodrich tyres with their added rotational inertia, and carrying not only the spare but also a full tank (with a combined additional mass of about 130kg), punted itself to 60mph in 4.6sec and onto 100mph in 10.1sec.

I drove the car in anger on its international media launch in South Africa. If you ever find yourself needing to fly down an undulating gravel track at 85mph, trust me, you’ll be fine
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

It’s a little off the manufacturer’s claim, but understandably so and still remarkable pace given that, for Octa duties, the Defender hasn’t dialled down its off-road ability but has actually increased it. Note also that the Octa is, in this specification, still quicker to 100mph than the mad Range Rover Sport SVR we tested in 2015 – perhaps as close to a Land Rover-built super-saloon as has ever seen the cold light of day.

There’s nothing wrong with the delivery of this BMW V8 either. It’s enjoyably responsive and linear, and while some would have wanted its exhaust note to be rortier still, in the manner of the Sport SVR, which you could hear miles away with the valves open, the Octa’s subtler roar has its own appeal.

Combined with the ZF’s gearbox, it metes out its laid-back muscle and is in general excellent company, especially when combined with such judicious tuning of the shift strategy, which nearly always seems to get it right whether you’re ambling around town or lining up an A-road overtake in Dynamic mode, when the Octa’s body also hunkers down a touch. 

With the new 400mm Brembo front discs, slowing the car is no hassle in most situations and the brake pedal also has a resolute feel that breeds confidence. But you do need to be aware of this car’s mass, which it otherwise disguises so impressively. It’s the same for all cars of this ilk. In good conditions, on the Goodrich tyres, an emergency stop from 70mph takes just under 57m – only 5% more than the lighter, road-tyre-shod Mercedes-Benz G500 needed when we road tested it.

RIDE & HANDLING

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land rover defender octa rt 2025 off road 1

To the function of that new button at the base of the steering wheel boss, then. Prod it once to put the Octa into Dynamic mode (suspension set to low and firm, exhaust to noisy and stability control dialled back for fast road driving); hold it down to enter Octa mode. This maintains the car’s ride height but hikes its damping reserves; shifts its default four-wheel-drive torque split to about 80% rear; disables its roll stability control system; and reprograms its traction and stability controls – and even the ABS – for maximum fun ‘on the loose’.

As we learned at the car’s international media launch in South Africa, the resulting driving experience is an awful lot of fun and even a little jaw-dropping. On gravel and dirt, Land Rover has tuned the Octa to be playful and adjustable as it progressively tucks itself into corners at speed, deliberately starting to lock and bury its front wheels into the dirt under braking, thanks to special ABS tuning, and then rotating gamely around them. Stability then gathers with power and corrective steering angle, as you’d probably want in a high-sided, 2.5-tonne car. The point is that you really can mess around with the handling attitude on a trailing throttle and back it into turns at will, so long as there’s room.

In a single day, I took the Octa from cramped London up to MIRA proving ground, where it not only nailed that 12.9sec quarter mile but also sauntered through the brutal off-road course as if it were a sand pit, and then I bombed it to Cumbria on the M6. I arrived feeling rested. Perhaps another car could have done all that. Can’t think what

Take it as read that, alongside the dust fests, the Octa can also handle the mucky stuff – traditionally a Defender’s bread and butter. Outside of Octa mode, it still has the regular car’s suite of terrain settings, only now with the benefit of the increased approach, departure and breakover angles. Horiba MIRA’s off-road course gets considerably more difficult than what you can see in the images on these pages and our test car lapped it up.

And so to the road. Much has been made of the Octa’s potential for width-, weight- and height-defying dynamics and, in many respects, the hype is well earned. The Octa has a marginally quicker steering response than the regular Defender but the real reason it feels so much more agile and, frankly, manageable than its off-the-shelf range-mates is mostly to do with the new cross-linked suspension. Especially in Dynamic mode, the car’s resistance to pitch and squat is notably reduced, and while roll movements start off in a familiar fashion, they’re quickly curtailed and the body’s deftly supported.

For any Defender to conduct itself like this is remarkable, not least in the context of the Octa’s broadened off-road envelope. Moreover, the Octa retains the regular car’s natural manner – the ease and fluidity that result from body movements being so well matched to cornering force and steering input, only with a much tighter operational window. It means that, even on the Goodrich tyres, you can put the Octa down a decent road just as quickly as you like, without having to worry about any unpleasant surprises the topography might throw up.

Is the Octa a driver’s car, then? Of sorts, yes. There’s satisfaction to be had here, though you are still ultimately dealing with a high centre of gravity, geometry that must cope with extreme off-road scenarios, and plenty of weight transfer. Certainly, think twice before cancelling that Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid order if outright dynamism is your priority.

Lastly, and as if the Octa needed another string to its bow, is touring ability. In Comfort mode, you’re treated to a languid gait but on many surfaces Octa mode itself yields the best ride quality. Combined with effortless torque, superb visibility and precise steering that doesn’t subtly leech your concentration, as it can in the regular car, the Octa is excellent company on long drives.

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MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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The Octa was launched in special Edition 1 trim – a familiar kind of ‘curated’ limited-volume spec combining particular paint and trim colours with some richer trim materials. It costs £163,545, though the basic Octa (which is nothing of the sort) is just over £148,000.

It puts this rarefied Defender into the territory of hot Cayennes, if not quite that of the Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus. Or, indeed, perhaps the car’s closest rival in terms of pace, luxury and off-road chops: AMG’s superb G63, which now starts at just under £182k.

It’s a leap up from what was the fruitiest Defender pre-Octa – the 5.0-litre V8 P425 Defender 110 X – but owners probably won’t have too much trouble justifying the outlay.

Of course, economy is diabolical. You’ll do well to average 20mpg and this will nosedive if you use the car as intended. Test touring economy was marginally better at 22.1mpg, but even with the 90-litre tank, that yields a range of only 438 miles.

VERDICT

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Creating a new model laser-focused on one area of extra-special capability almost always reduces overall breadth, sometimes to an infuriating extent. (Take the current Porsche 911 GT3 RS, which swaps the regular handy frunk for a motorsport radiator.)

The magic of the Octa, and a serious tribute to the engineers behind it, is that such a reality has been not merely avoided but in fact inverted. The Octa is wild fun in the rally-raid-esque environment for which it has been primarily devised, but it’s also a sweeter-handling car on ordinary roads and a usefully more capable companion off those sealed surfaces than the already excellent Defender 110.

It pushes the Defender’s spider chart of attributes outwards in every meaningful direction (including price, of course) and does it with a charm that makes it oh so easy to love.

Richard Lane

Richard Lane, Autocar
Title: Deputy road test editor

Richard joined Autocar in 2017 and like all road testers is typically found either behind a keyboard or steering wheel (or, these days, a yoke).

As deputy road test editor he delivers in-depth road tests and performance benchmarking, plus feature-length comparison stories between rival cars. He can also be found presenting on Autocar's YouTube channel.

Mostly interested in how cars feel on the road – the sensations and emotions they can evoke – Richard drives around 150 newly launched makes and models every year. His job is then to put the reader firmly in the driver's seat.