What better way to for Land Rover to show off the capabilities of the Defender than by entering it in the world’s toughest off-road race?
The British marque has announced that a Defender will compete in the 2026 edition of the Dakar Rally. The move is part of a multi-year partnership between the automaker and the notoriously difficult race that will run through at least 2028.
It’s easy to see why Land Rover would want to work with the Dakar Rally. Since it was first held in 1979, the rally has widely been regarded as the world’s most challenging off-road race. It originally stretched from Paris to Dakar, Senegal, but has been held in Saudi Arabia since 2020. Last year’s rally saw contestants in two- and four-wheeled off-road vehicles traverse across nearly 3,000 miles of the world’s toughest terrain over the course of two weeks.
Image courtesy of Land Rover
The fact that the automaker, which is owned by JLR, wants to enter the Defender in the gruelling rally shows how much faith it has in the popular model. The announcement included no details about the version of the SUV will run in the 2026 race, but Land Rover has plenty of options to choose from. Earlier this year, the marque introduced the high-performance Octa variant, which has a twin-turbocharged mild-hybrid 4.0-litre V-8 with mild hybrid technology that makes 626 hp and 553 ft lbs of torque, easily making it the most powerful Defender in history.
“Anyone who loves motorsport will have a passion for Dakar,” James Barclay, the managing director of JLR, said in a statement. “It’s the Everest of motorsport and an event where success is dependent as much on human determination in the toughest of conditions as it is ultimate test for vehicle and engineering capability.”
Land Rover will have a good sense of how the Defender will handle itself at Dakar well before the SUV makes its competitive debut. As part of the multi-year partnership, Land Rover will be supplying a fleet of Defenders to organisers to use as support vehicles during next year’s race. Six Defenders will also be used to test routes for future Dakar events. The 2025 Dakar Rally will run from 3 to 17 January.
