Land Rover celebrates its 70th anniversary with the new Defender Works V8

Just when we thought the Defender was a goner, Land Rover has performed the most high-profile resurrection since Jon Snow’s. Well, kinda. Land Rover stopped selling the famous model a few years ago, but as 2018 sees the marque turn 70(!), it has decided to bring it back – albeit with a limited run – in the shape of the Defender Works V8. Fitted with a 5.0-litre naturally-aspirated V8 powertrain, the special edition produces 400bhp, giving it a 0-60 acceleration in 5.6 seconds. It tops out at 106mph, making it nippier than a vehicle of this size has any right to be. The engines in the 150 re-engineered cars Land Rover is building are paired with an eight-speed ZF auto ‘box, that (brilliantly) includes a sport mode. Chuck in uprated brakes, a handling kit, and Bi-LED headlights, and you can see why it’s going to be very hard of both the 90 (£150,000) and 110 (even more dosh) variants when they go on sale.