2025 Land Rover Defender Octa - Dynamic and Highly Equipped Luxury SUV!

2025 Land Rover Defender Octa

Go to YouTube and you'll find videos of Land Rover test drivers hooning prototype Defenders around the Nürburgring. It's wild to see a boxy SUV on knobby all-terrain tires squeal and slide around Germany's famously challenging racetrack. Then again, the 2025 Land Rover Defender 110 Octa—with its 626-hp twin-turbo V-8 and sophisticated hydraulic suspension—is no mere mudder. Jamal Hameedi, Jaguar Land Rover's Special Vehicle Operations director, told us that it's the first time a hardcore off-road tire was used on the 'Ring, and he said the runs weren't for fast lap times, but to ensure the Octa was durable and fun.

After three years of development—including some 14,000 more tests than a standard Defender, covering everything from Château de Lastours rally stages to rock crawling in Moab and ice driving in Sweden—the Octa has locked down the durability half of the equation. But is it fun? After two days and roughly 400 miles of driving on the paved highways, gravel roads, rocky trails, and sand dunes of South Africa, it's clear the Octa excels at everything.

Octa Ups the Ante

The Octa is an unflappable über-ute that can hustle around sweeping corners or tiptoe over treacherous terrain. It's not as ostentatious as alternatives like the 577-hp Mercedes-AMG G63, but this Landie is more powerful and handles way better than that hot-rod haycart. Unlike the G-wagen, the Defender has a fully independent suspension, and the Octa takes that up a notch with a trick setup called 6D Dynamics, which includes height-adjustable air springs and hydraulically cross-linked adaptive dampers. Shared with the Range Rover Sport SV, the 6D setup eschews anti-roll bars, instead relying on the air springs and linked dampers to combat pitch and roll. The result is a dirt-friendly SUV that didn't feel loosey-goosey over the road. The Octa also promises better articulation and increased suspension travel versus a standard Defender, making it easier to clamber over boulders.

Compared with the regular Defender 110—the only body style offered for this trim—the Octa has a quicker 13.7:1 steering ratio, and the front and rear tracks are both 2.7 inches wider. The additional girth required longer and stronger control arms, and Land Rover engineers dropped the outboard pickup points to lower the vehicle's roll center. Hameedi's team also worked with Goodyear to develop Octa-specific rubber that's allegedly more capable than the BFGoodrich KO3. The resulting Wrangler DuraTrac all-terrain tires have a blocky tread pattern and, when mounted on the available 20-inch wheels (22s are standard), stand 33 inches tall. Hameedi told us they debated using 35s, but the fatter sidewalls couldn't provide enough lateral stiffness.