GAYDON (INGHILTERRA) (ITALPRESS) – Defender Rally unveiled the brand new Defender Dakar D7X-R, the official team car in the W2RC 2026, in view of its debut in January in Dakar, the most extreme rally-raid of the world. A talented team of pilots and copilots will face the epic adventure with the Defender Dakar D7X-R with which the three crews will face more than 80 hours of competitive driving in two weeks and about 5,000 km of timed stages.
The legend of the Dakar Stèphane Peterhansel and Mika Metge; Rokas Baciuska and Oriol Vidal; and Sara Price with Sean Berriman will be supported by an experienced team of mechanics and engineers, with the new Team Principal, Ian James, at the helm.
Each Defender Dakar D7X-R comes from the assembly line of the state-of-the-art production plant in Defender in Nitra, Slovakia, adhering to the regulations that impose that the shell of the racing car should not be modified compared to the original production.
FIA regulations for the new Stock category, launched for 2026, establish what should not be modified by the production vehicle, as well as changes that can be made and how. The Defender Dakar D7X-R adopts the same robust architecture of the D7x shell, the same transmission and the same layout of the cinematic Defender OCTA. The D7X-R will also be equipped with the V8 4.4 litre biturbo of OCTA – another element that cannot be modified – and will work with an advanced sustainable fuel, as defined and compliant with FIA regulations.
The Defender Dakar D7X-R will compete in a raw, elementary and powerful livery inspired by the tones and textures of the desert. The brand new design “Geopalette” takes inspiration from the arid landscapes that characterize the Dakar. It combines the tones of sand, stone and earth with a hint of Aqua, drawn from the rare waters of the desert that bring contrast and clarity.
“Defender is the original British brand of adventure, synonymous with unstoppable capacity and epic enterprises, something we are proud to show on the world’s competitive scene. Defender Dakar D7X-R is the most solid and powerful Defender ever built. It has the same architecture and silhouette of the Defender OCTA, but has been developed to face the biggest off-road competition. Dakar pushes everything to the limit, and compete in a rally-raid of this magnitude will authentically show the ability and robustness of Defender in the most extreme and most difficult conditions of the planet” says Mark Cameron, Managing Director, Defender.
photo: JLR Italia press office
(ITALPRESS).
