Land Rover’s New Defender Upgrade Kits Will Refresh Old Warriors

Land Rover has announced a range of upgrades designed for Defender models, helping to bring their appearance up to date.

The kits, inspired by the sheer demand the company saw for the more powerful, sharper-handling Defender Works V8 of 2018, can bring aesthetic and performance gains to Defenders built since 1994, although the more significant changes are only applicable to newer models.

They start with a set of wheels dubbed Sawtooth, in 18-inch size. They weigh in at £432 per wheel (£2160 for five) plus fitting if required, and look sharp on the old off-roader’s boxy frame. Any Defender built since 1994 can wear them.

On top of that there’s a Suspension Upgrade Kit available for 2007 models and onwards. It spans ‘uniquely tuned’ suspension biased towards on-road comfort and dynamic prowess with different coil spring rates, new dampers, new anti-roll bars, links and bushes. It costs £1823 for the kit to fit a Defender 110, and £2247 for a Defender 90. Fitting is extra.

Moving to the Handling Upgrade Kit, on top of everything in the previous options you get the brakes from the Defender Works V8, covering the calipers, pads and discs. The price now takes a real leap, at £9967 for a 110 and £10,391 for a 90.

Lastly, and lustily, there’s the full banana Classic Works Upgrade Kit designed to fit 2.2-litre TDCi Defenders built since 2012. It’s only available direct from Land Rover Classic and needs to be fitted by them. It covers all of the previously-described upgrades but also adds new performance-rated tyres and a 40bhp boost to 160bhp.

That pushes the diesel Defender’s top speed to 106mph and comes with bespoke front wing badges, an owner’s certificate, collection of your Defender ahead of the works, and a tour of either The Land Rover Classic Works in this country or at the firm’s Essen facility in Germany, where the upgrade is apparently carried out.

The price is £16,995, fitted, for both Defender wheelbases and all body styles, and any work that includes the performance tyres can only be carried out by Land Rover Classic itself. Essentially that just means the maximum-effort Works kit, but it could include any of the other kits if a buyer adds the performance tyres to the order.