Land Rover’s Defender Dakar D7X-R will be the ultimate ‘stock’ off-roader
The Land Rover Defender will take on the world’s most gruelling off-road race in 2026, with the brand becoming Dakar’s official car partner
The Land Rover Defender is officially racing at the Dakar rally in 2026, but it won’t be using a stripped-out, bespoke racer to do so. Instead, the Defender Dakar D7X-R has been developed to slot neatly into the ‘stock’ category as a production-based racer with close ties to the road-going Octa we know and love. The model will be revealed in full later this year ahead of a 2026 race debut.
While still very capable, the latest iteration of the Defender has taken on more of the duties that the Discovery traditionally performed, as a sturdy yet cosseting family SUV. Quite in contrast to the rough and ready Land Rover that existed in broadly the same form between 1948 and 2016.
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Over the years, events like the Camel Trophy and G4 Challenge are where Land Rovers were pushed to their limits. In 1971 and 1972, modified Range Rovers crossed the Darién Gap, a 250-mile stretch of what was considered impassable swampland between Panama and Colombia. The Dakar will present an altogether different kind of challenge for the latest Defender, of course, being an actual race/competition against other makes and models.
The car in question, officially named the Defender Dakar D7X-R, is based on the Octa, Land Rover’s most capable road-going model yet. Exact details will come in due course, but we do know that it’ll share the same underlying 110-based D7X architecture, 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged BMW-derived V8 and eight-speed automatic transmission. Power and performance figures haven’t been disclosed just yet, but the road-going Octa produces 626bhp and 553lb ft of torque for a 4sec 0-62mph time flat-out.
Defender will be the official car partner of the event, starting from 2025 initially until 2028. A fleet of six specially-prepared Defenders will be brought in as recce vehicles to test routes for future events, while Defenders will also be used on the transport fleet for rally officials and VIP media.
Following the conclusion of the first real-world test in the Sahara, James Barclay, Managing Director of JLR Motorsport, said: ‘Completing our first official test in the Defender Dakar D7X-R prototype is a huge milestone and kicks off a busy calendar of testing activity on our journey to Dakar. The team are doing phenomenal work as we prepare for the world’s most challenging off-road race in just eight months’ time.’
JLR has also announced the first two drivers for its contender; 14-time Dakar winner Stéphane Peterhansel and Lithuanian rally driver Rokas Baciuška.
