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Today JLR announced that Land Rover (or I guess just Defender, as LR is technically no longer a thing... thanks, Thierry Bollore, you stupid ****ing idiot) will be the official vehicle sponsor of the Dakar Rally starting next year, and going through 2028. That's cool, but the big news is that Land Rover (ahem, Defender) will enter as an official factory team and compete in the 2026 Dakar Rally. I am seriously looking forward to this, and it will be a great test to showcase its durability and superb off-road capability.
For those who don't know, Land Rover has a storied history with the Dakar Rally. The very first car to win Dakar was a Range Rover in 1979, and won again in 1981 along with numerous podium results throughout the 1980s. Land Rover already has a Defender Rally Series over in Europe, which use 90 P300s modified by Bowler, which was bought out by JLR a few years ago. I can guarantee that the lessons learned from these events, along with the Bowler engineering team, will be an influential part of the Dakar team.
Will they do something like VW, who made a dedicated rally raid truck and made it look a bit like a Touareg, or will they start off with a stock Defender and modify it for the competition? If so, t will be interesting to see the extent of the changes that they do for the competition vehicles.
I am very much looking forward to this and cannot wait to see Defenders take the toughest rally on Earth!
About time they rejoined the Dakar Rally. I look forward to further news and hope they will reinstate the Camel Trophy adventures. Thanks for sharing this exciting news!
Loved seeing this announcement today! Been watching the Dakar the past few years, and also huge shout out to the editor / producer and VO talent for their YouTube video, because they crush the daily recaps — however this is going to make it even more enjoyable to watch in the coming years. Excited to see the defenders out there too!
Today JLR announced that Land Rover (or I guess just Defender, as LR is technically no longer a thing... thanks, Thierry Bollore, you stupid ****ing idiot)
Huh? Land rover isn't a thing anymore? Is that why the badges have been being removed?
Huh? Land rover isn't a thing anymore? Is that why the badges have been being removed?
Nope, its technically now Range Rover, Discovery and Defender. The Green Oval is only on the grille as a "reference mark" but that's pretty much it. Hell, JLR is also meaningless. It also doesn't technically stand for Jaguar Land Rover anymore. JLR stands for JLR.
Thierry Bollore is a stupid ****ing **** who took a French attitude to a historic British marque, and did so much damage he was forced out after less than two years. Only Carlos Tavares over at Stellantis is a worse CEO. He was the one who green-lit the Jaguar rebrand, and look how well that's going... Dude deserves the guillotine.
I guess I'm late to the party too. I thought they were doing some brand stupidity, but hey what do I know. The only thing I know about brands is what a marketing professor told me in the last millennia when I was in college: You know a company has a strong brand when people start tattooing it onto their bodies.... Whelp, I guess Tata doesn't understand tattoos.
I smell a new Bowler Wild Cat. DAKAR EDITION. The YT below gives you a great overview of Bowler Defender rally spec and the changes to the new Wild Cat 2.0. If interested follow Vanessa's (Girl on a Bike) YT as she is the team lead for one of the Wild Cats (3 women's team) at this years Africa Eco Race. Vanessa is also a Bowler works Factory Driver for the Bowler team. The Africa ECO race is the run up of Team, vehicle testing and Race prep for the Dakar. in my opinion. It will be interesting to see if the Defender factory team in 2026 as stated in the Defender Commercial can be competitive. Sounds like an after thought to me as they have very large shoes to fill. Large shoes that need to be well warn and tested. A fancy TERK edition will not be competitive
Dakar Announcement
