Land Rover Defender D300 X offers best of both worlds

I honestly can’t remember the last time I drove a Land Rover Defender, but I think The Camel Guy as he was known back then was considered hot stuff. Smoking cigarettes was seen as macho, and the toughest dudes were competing in the Camel Trophy in the jungles of Brazil in these iconic vehicles.

Fast forward a bunch of years, and the world has changed for the better, or gone completely mad, depending on your personal perspective of life. I can assure you that the drive in the updated Defender 110 D300 X I used two weekend ago was nothing like the Defender I drove all those years ago.

And this macho machine has also just recently been voted the Women’s World Car of the Year by a jury of 50 female motoring journalists from 38 countries on five continents, Don’t for a moment see this as an attack on the prowess of the new Land Rover Defender.

I think it is a huge compliment that you can have an SUV with a go anywhere heritage as strong as the Defenders’, and yet be luxurious enough that women all over the world want to own one. This said, I am not so sure I would tackle a jungle with something that comes in at R1 665 000.

So, I didn’t, I headed off to a quaint little place called Woodland Gardens Lodge in the Magaliesburg for a much needed break away from the current madness, and some extra recovery time from a horrible bout of Covid-19. Which of course meant I never had the need to use the hardcore off-road ability of the Defender, instead I simply left the tried and tested Configurable Terrain Response system in the intelligent Auto mode that leaves the SUV to detect the best settings automatically for the conditions.

WATCH: New Land Rover Defender goes bundu bashing.

My “conditions” for what it is worth, were a mix of smooth tar to rutted dirt roads that took you in an out of the province every few kilometres. One minute you are in Gauteng, and before you know it, on a road in the middle of the mielie fields, you are leaving the province, and then back again a little further down the road.

Now before you accuse me of breaking the law and being irresponsible by leaving Gauteng to spread Covid-19, as I stated earlier, I tested positive for the virus and am now negative, and in recovery, and travelling around the country to review a vehicle is very much a part of my job.

So, I would like to think that my time spent inside a car with my wife, and then on an open farm in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of boisterous dogs as company was hardly criminal, but more like medicinal.

Anyway, back to the Land Rover Defender D300 and what has been updated. There is a new intelligent driveline system that continually varies axle torque based on sensor data from the vehicle’s surroundings and driver inputs to distribute all torque to one axle or the other as required. This intelligent torque distribution system optimises the driveline for traction, on-road dynamics, and driveline efficiency, resulting in claimed improved fuel economy without sacrificing any of Defender’s off-road capability.

And then the only previous diesel option was the 2.0-litre twin turbo D240 that produced 177 kW of power and 430 Nm of torque, whereas now you have a punchy in-line six-cylinder diesel under the bonnet of the D300, that pumps out 221 kW of power and 650 Nm of torque to further compliment the range of models to choose from.

Not that I thought I would ever say this about a Defender, but the claimed 0 to 100 km/h is a fast 7.0 seconds and the top speed a proper 191 km/h. I enjoyed every moment behind the wheel of this Land Rover Defender D300 X.

For more information about the Land Rover Defender D300 X, click here.