The Defender OCTA has piqued our interest ever since a viral video showed a prototype smoking a four-wheel drift around the Nürburgring.
The definitive spec proved no less enticing: it’s the most powerful Defender ever, with a 635hp V8; Land Rover has raised it by 28mm and widened it by 68mm; braking is by Brembo; and the hydraulically interlinked ‘6D Dynamics’ suspension is akin to a top-end McLaren.
And now we get to drive it, thrashing it over the toughest trails that South Africa can throw at it.
Does it live up to its billing as ‘the most extreme Defender ever’? Or does it break under duress? Over to Top Gear’s Editor-in-Chief, Jack Rix, for the verdict…
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00:00 The Land Rover Defender OCTA
02:15 Acceleration
03:43 Suspension
04:25 Off-road
08:07 Wheels
08:50 Rock crawling
10:01 Interior
11:01 Wading
11:23 The dunes
12:58 Chat with Matt Becker
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Welcome to the official home of Top Gear on YouTube. Here you'll find all the best clips from your favourite episodes, whether that’s Ken Block drifting London in the Hoonicorn, Chris Harris in the latest Porsche 911 GT3 or classic Top Gear clips from Clarkson, Hammond and May. You'll also find the latest performance car reviews from the TopGear.com crew, our brand new series American Tuned with Rob Dahm and the fastest power laps from our in house performance benchmark: The Stig.
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