Meet the luxury Defender 130 that
cost $1500 an inch
Suddenly it’s fashionable to turn
mud-slinging Defenders into boulevard cruisers. I believe this fondness for
modifying Defenders has stemmed from Land Rover's resurgence on a global
market. The brand is right but the need to be different is overwhelming. Hence
bespoke companies like Twisted, Nene's Project Icon and the company I'm
visiting today - Berkshire Land Rover.
Defender
130 - A Vehicle With Unlimited Potential For Converting
This company has a long reputation for
bespoke builds, and recently hit the headlines for supplying modified
battle-scarred Defender 110s for the Bond film, Skyfall.
But Berkshire's latest bespoke build turns
out to be one of the most decadent, lavish Defenders I've ever seen.
The vehicle in question is a Defender 130
that costs -wait for it - $193,500. That's nearly $1500 for every inch of wheelbase.
Berkshire Land Rover's Kieron Sumner says:
"We wanted to do something totally different. Everyone else seemed to be
doing 110s and 90s, and we weren't really showing off our skills, so we did a
130. We had a 130 in the workshop and decided to totally make it over.
"We were originally going to the
Goodwood Festival of Speed and we wanted something that would fit in. There
were four or five companies with Defenders on show, but they were all the same
old, same old. The 130 was different and it gave us the chance to have a full
hi-cap cab at the back and a huge load bay, so that it looks like it has
attitude when it's out on the road."
The first thing for Kieron and the team was
to strip the body off the old 130 and clean it up. As this was going to be a
show vehicle with no expense spared, a brand-new galvanized chassis was used -
and then lengthened so that Berkshire could add an NAS rear step. Because of
the huge overhang on the 130's body, Berkshire had to lengthen the chassis by
about a foot to provide something structurally secure for that step. The car
itself isn't longer than a normal 130, but the chassis is.
Once the chassis was tidied up, Berkshire
set about brainstorming what to modify and bolt on to the 130 to make it stand
out from the crowd. These crowd-pleasers include a big- bore exhaust, modified
'comfort' suspension, cross-drilled and vented brakes, SVX seats, BLR bespoke
20-inch alloy wheels with bespoke spacers and, importantly, an automatic
gearbox.
Once
the chassis was tidied up, Berkshire set about brainstorming what to modify and
bolt on to the 130 to make it stand out from the crowd.
The interior had to be leather. When you're
building a $202,917 car, you're hardly going to
use cloth, and the lashings of hide lend the cabin a snug, dark feel. Berkshire
also went for carbon dipping on the dash, which actually has a blue burr
finish. As for seating, Kieron explains: "A car like this isn't about
packing five people in, so we installed four SVX Recaro seats. It's a
four-seater cruiser with twin cubby boxes, front and rear.
Plush
interior (with auto box)
A good cruiser of course needs a good
stereo, and we went for the two eight-inch subs and eight other speakers in the
cab. It's got front and back DVD players and wireless headphones. It has LED
puddle lights, LED courtesy lights and either side of the steering wheel and
glove box there are two LEDs that point to the ignition slot so you're not
fumbling around in the dark. Dynamat is used all over the vehicle to reduce the
noise, and is then covered in Schutz by 3M."
Out on the road, driving this beast is a
doddle, thanks to a very clever automatic transmission installation. Kieron
says: "The automatic box is the crowning achievement. Under the bonnet we
gave it an ECU upgrade with an Autologic tune and we put a bigger intercooler
on, fitted a new air filter and upgraded the exhaust.
Rear
step entailed lengthening the chassis
"We decided to up the power a bit to
compensate for the auto box sapping a bit of it. You'll notice that the auto
doesn't have a second gear lever and we've integrated the two switches taken
from a Range Rover Sport.
"We knew exactly how we could do it,
but we needed the right components. We used marine-quality components so they
wouldn't be affected by water, salt or dirt, and undertook a lot of fabrication
work, but it worked. We're now able to offer this package to customers. We've
done half a dozen so far.
"You can either have the standard
Discovery 2 gearbox or you can have the bespoke Vogue set-up. It's an Ashcroft
Transmission box, upgraded by us to make it do what we want it to do. The
center console is pure Sport, but not the box; that's bespoke. It all works as
it should with the instrument binnacle and vehicle's ECU. We originally fitted
stop-start, but removed it because the customer didn't want it."
From the driver's seat, you can't help but
love the gearbox. There's no hunting by the engine, no needless gear changes
and the whole package has a real OEM feel to it. I've never driven a 2.4 TDCi
engine coupled to an auto box before, but I'm highly impressed with Berkshire
Land Rover's retro-fit. The changes are smooth, sweet and precise.
Distinctive
profile side-on
The smaller steering wheel also plays a
part in transforming the 130 into a more manageable cruiser, while the bucket
Recaro seats complement all of this, perfectly.
As soon as Berkshire's 130 hit the show
circuit it began to attract a lot of attention - so much so that the company
decided to put it up for sale on its website. The car was quickly snapped up by
its wealthy new owner and is now destined to spend its life in the Middle East
- probably to the chagrin of a number of new Range Rover owners who thought
they could steal a march in the envy stakes.
equally
distinctive rear view
As for me, I really enjoyed driving the 130
around suburban Berkshire. I have to be honest and admit that it's not really
my cup of tea, but I have a lot of respect for it. The interior has been
trimmed to an exceptionally high standard and the gearbox engineering and
installation are superb. You can't buy a Defender off the shelf with an
automatic gearbox - which greatly irritates devotees of both Defenders and auto
transmissions - but Berkshire has demonstrated that the transplant can be done,
beautifully.
It leaves just one question: where do you
go from here? A $300,000 Defender? Kieron says: "We've got a few projects
at the moment. One is a 130 powered by a 5.0-liter petrol Jaguar V8 130, and
we're also doing a couple Of bespoke 110s.
"We've got our own upholstery shop so
we're looking at doing something very special for our next build, but that's
all I can say at the moment."
Whether or not Berkshire Land Rover can better
the $204,490 - 130 has yet to be seen, but judging by the new wealth being
created in India, China and the Middle East, I reckon it's only a matter of
time. There's no limit when it comes to this end of the Land Rover modification
scene and, from an engineering point of view, that's great news for all of us
enthusiasts.
