LEFT OF me,” crackled the voice over the radio. The Land Rover guide was standing on the crest of a steep dune. He knew what was over the other side, but my colleague in the Land Rover Defender 130 didn’t. “Left, left, LEEEEFT,” he shrieked as the driver headed towards him and the unseen drop. So the driver turned left. His left. Which was not really the ideal sort of left.
As it crested the dune, the steering was yanked all the way right. The Defender had to roll. Surely. Nobody wishes for things to go pear-shaped on a press launch but it usually enlivens proceedings when they do. We abandoned our vehicle and ran to get a look at the carnage. Amazingly, the Defender was at the bottom of the incline on all four wheels. It had seemingly defied physics and stayed upright. Its driver grinned and gave a nervy thumbs up. I don’t know who was whiter, him or the bloke from Land Rover.
We’re at Telal resort, a private sanctuary out near the United Arab Emirates’ border with Oman. Untouched dunes stretch in each direction, with the odd oryx or mountain gazelle the sole interlopers. It’s like something from an Indiana Jones movie save an absence of pesky Nazis.
It’s hard not to think of the Defender as the new Defender, despite the fact that this L663 generation was initially unveiled at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show, shortly before global events took an unexpected turn. Four years is a long time in this market sector, but the Defender retains a certain sheen of novelty. Perhaps we’re still trying to get our noggins around exactly what it is and where
