This Classic Land Rover Defender Has Custom Corvette Horsepower
The brawny British SUV gets an All-American upgrade.
The Land Rover restoration specialists at South Carolina’s Himalaya outfit have “cloned” nearly all components of a special-edition Defender…except the engine. In 2018, the British marque produced 150 custom tributes to the 1979 Land Rover Defender Series III for the UK market.
Himalaya is making a version of the same storied SUV as well, but with General Motors’ LS3 6.3-liter V8—the same power plant in Chevy’s C6 Corvette—under the hood instead of the diminutive Rover V8. That upgrades the output to a hefty 525 horses and 425 pound-feet of torque, which are channeled through a six-speed automatic transmission.
Other American features include Fox shocks, a Magnaflow performance exhaust, 18-inch alloy rims clad in BFGoodrich A/T KO2 tires, and a head-turning red paint coat with gloss black accents in lieu of the classic heritage mint green paint coat, Motor Trend reports.
Inside is a modern two-tone black-and-white finish that’s totally unique to Himalaya, as well as techy upgrades including a back-up camera, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android support, a touch screen and a subwoofer.
Himalaya has a penchant for giving Land Rovers some American horsepower—just take a look at the James Bond villain-inspired “Spectre.” As for the 70th Clone, feel free to reach out here to inquire if you’re interested.
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