Off roading round Dunkeld in the Land Rover Defender 130

Land Rover’s new Defender has pulled off the impossible trick of being a worthy successor to the most iconic off roader of all time.

When the company stopped producing the original Defender in 2016 it was the end of a 67 year era. Four years later it launched an all-new Defender. You only need to use the eyeball test of how many of them you see on the roads every day to realise it’s been a resounding success.

The new Defender 130 is huge. Image: Land Rover.

The new Defender is even more capable off road than its legendary predecessor and much, much better on-road.

Until very recently it came in a dinky, three-door short wheelbase 90 version and a more practical five-door 110 model.

Sizing up

Now there’s an even bigger one. The Defender 130 is 340mm longer than the already capacious Defender 110 and has seating for eight people (the 110 maxes out at seven seats).

Land Rover brought one of the only Defender 130s in the UK to Dunkeld and I was among the first motoring journalists to drive it off road in Scotland.

Standing two metres tall and more than five metres long it’s quite a beast. In the flesh it looks and feels even bigger than those numbers suggest. This is a gargantuan car.

The Defender in Highland Perthshire. Image: Land Rover.

It comes with the option of two mild hybrid petrol engines – a P300 with 296bhp or a P400 with 395bhp – or a six cylinder twin-turbo diesel with 296bhp that was in the version I drove.

Defender prices start at just over £60,000 for the 90 model. The 110 costs from £64,000 and the 130 costs a chunk more, starting at £75,620.

Over the course of two days I drove the Defender 90, 110 and 130 on some challenging off road courses at the Land Rover Experience in Dunkeld.

Peerless off road

Aided by the centre’s expert instructors we tackled water obstacles, log and rock crawls, and steep muddy ascents and descents.

All three models were equally impressive. Despite the 130’s extra length it never felt unwieldy driving through dense woodland or rearing over blind summits.

The Defender getting stuck in aboot it. Image: Land Rover.

Tackling some steep embankments I took the Defender to a quite alarming level of elevation and it was all I could do not to slide out of my seat.

On another obstacle some carefully coached throttle work enabled me to get the car balanced on only its front left and back right wheels, with the other two corners of the vehicle floating in midair.

The Defender has a 900mm wading depth. Image: Land Rover.

I took the Defender out on some roads around Dunkeld and for a car with such phenomenal mud-plugging prowess it is extraordinarily comfortable on road.

Although it can’t quite match the effortless serenity of a Range Rover, it’s quiet, comfortable and refined.

Gigantic inside

As you’d expect, interior space is extraordinary. I’m 6’5” and I was able to sit in the third row of seats without becoming a piece of human origami. Getting there involved a yoga pose or two but once in leg and headroom were adequate.

The Defender 130 is a car you can actually fit eight adults in. With eight people you’re left with roughly the same amount of boot space as in a family hatchback. Used as a five seater the Defender 130 has a boot that’s just shy of 1,100 litres, which is quite incredible.

The Defender 130 is as astonishingly impressive off road as its smaller brethren and as surprisingly comfortable and relaxing on-road.

Of course it will be far, far too big for most people. This is clearly the car Land Rover is hoping will crack the American market for them and it certainly deserves to. If I was an American looking for an eight-seat SUV to tool around Montana in I’d much rather have a Defender than a Chevrolet, Buick or Lincoln.

In Scotland’s smaller landscape, on its narrower roads and in its more compact towns and cities it’s simply too big.

The Land Rover 110 remains the best version of the Defender for Scottish buyers.