Land Rover Defender 90 V8 Fast Fleet test – living with the 5-litre V8 4x4

This addition to the evo fleet doesn’t share the flagship Defender Octa’s BMW-sourced twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8, instead retaining the supercharged 5-litre V8 that JLR created in 2009. It’s hooked up to an eight-speed automatic transmission and a drivetrain that allows a Defender 90 to go pretty much anywhere, so while it may have lost 17 inches from its wheelbase length over a 110, that’s the only thing it gives away to its bigger brother.

The last JLR product to feature the supercharged V8, the £110,505 (before options) 90 isn’t left wanting in the performance stakes despite its engine being able to trace its roots back to a time when Max Verstappen was racing karts as a 12-year-old. Its 518bhp and 461lb ft have the heavyweight task of taking on 2471kg and largely come away unscathed when you decide to bring forward your next trip to the fuel station and give it everything. It’s not as vocal as the ’charged V8 once was due to regulations, but there’s still a roar to go with the shove you get when you fire it off the line, reaching 62mph in 5.2sec – although the painful result is a sub-20mpg figure, a number that increases only slightly if you don’t drive it everywhere like you’re late for your next tattoo appointment.

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Our car’s Carpathian Grey paint finish isn’t matt, yet the £4000 of protective film covering it is. And the bonnet is black not grey (part of a £1465 black exterior pack), which along with the 22-inch gloss black wheels (£625) makes it all look a little early noughties. The 90’s proportions are upscaled GR Yaris on stilts, all four-square and wheel-at-each-corner (plus one on the tailgate), looking punchy and up for something. Battering inclement weather is the toughest test it’s faced with us to date, although that’s due to change.

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Compared with other new Defenders (is it still new? It was launched nearly half a decade ago), the stubby 90 lacks the on-road composure of its lengthier siblings, requiring more steering correction on unsettled surfaces than a 110 or 130. But it still drives better than many more road-biased SUVs we could name.

On-road comfort is far higher than you might expect and the no-cost-option panoramic roof floods the all-black interior with much-needed light. Land Rover’s ergonomics have also become some of the best around without anyone really shouting about them. It’s unlikely we’ll run out of interior storage any time soon, with cubby holes and shelves everywhere, and although the non-existent ‘boot’ space is a joke, the rear-seat area embarrasses many a West London rental flat for square metres.

I doubt much of this matters to you, because you’re possibly asking why evo has such a car. The answer is simply because every once in a while you need to find your driving thrills away from the apex point. And the one who will seek out this thrill won’t be me, but Dickie Meaden. If anyone can uncover the thrill in a 2.5-ton SUV designed to tumble down and crawl up a mountain, it will be evo’s founding co-editor. Over to you, Dickie.

This story was first featured in evo issue 331.