Looks like they took it down or the story expired. Oh well. I’ll look around to see how to watch, would be fun if there is some sort of tV / event coverage.

 

The Defender team has won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the 2nd stage of the Dakar Rally. That's awesome! Hopefully they can keep it up!

 

This is going to be a ridiculously good proof point and marketing / PR campaign for JLR if this continues for the duration .

They’ve now done this THREE days straight. 1/2/3 for days 1/2/3. That’s insane.

 

 

Interesting decision by LR to enter Dakar. Great to see the Defenders dominating their small stock class. But the effort contrasts with how they are positioning Defender in the US. They seem to be moving even more toward the “urban” 22” wheel market here, which makes me think they didn’t have US audiences in mind when they decided to enter the race. Here, they seem to be positioned against G-Wagens, not Jeeps.

Are Defenders pitched more toward the off road crowd in Australia, South Africa, or elsewhere; a marketing strategy which would be able to capitalize on success in Dakar?

 

Defenders are absolutely marketed as the off road, go-anywhere, any-time vehicle. Now there is something to be said for having an overpowered vehicle doing any technical off roading, i.e. one does not really need a V8 to do rock crawling or mud diving or abseiling mountains in a defender.
But then there is the illusion, you NEED it, to be the best of the best. I bet 50% of all defenders does not see more than the occasional dirt road or soccer mom pavement pick-up.
Here in the land down under, there are may defenders going outback or towing caravans (think grey nomads doing laps of Australia) or occasional 4x4-ing. But for those with serious 4x4 in mind, a $100k Defender is not it. Most people will get an old Toyota or Nissan or something alike that does not cost an arm & leg to repair after a serious off road day trip.
Also, the US market are 100% petrol defenders, whilst in ZA or AU there is a much smaller petrol and proportionally much bigger diesel engine variant market. The diesel variants offering the benefits of lower down torque, better towing, less fuel consumption than petrol and generally diesel is the only option going deep into outback away from civilisation. Unfortunately in ZA and AU there is no drill-baby-drill and don't benefit from low petrol prices like in the USA.
So, I reckon picking the OCTA for Dakar was squarely aimed at the US.

 

Maybe. But Americans watch NASCAR, not Dakar. And sponsoring three highly modified cars for Dakar is expensive. JLR could have gotten a lot more bang for the buck by sending Defenders to overlanding shows; pressing aftermarket accessories manufacturers to develop and bring to the US market off-roading accessories for the model (something Toyota did at scale for the GX550/Land Cruiser introduction) etc.

I think there would have been higher-impact, lower cost ways to try to shift the perception of the car in the audience of US off-roading/overlanding enthusiasts.

 

I have to beg to differ. The US perception of Land Rover is very different than Lexus/Toyota. To this day you can read comments on forums all over Youtube, Reddit and others of people still can’t get let go of the unreliability woes of the D1/D2 Buick derived engines decades ago. So to simply show up to overlanding events with some accessories on a Defender won’t give a rats *** to people’s perception of LR here in the US. For JLR spending a boat load of $$$ on 3 rigs entering the Dakar will have a far greater impact then showing up with some accessories at your local overlanding show.

 

Not trying to be mean but this is so far off from reality because the US buyer hardly even knows the Dakar event exists, or that Land Rover is in it, as well as very little coverage that I had to search for because I am a LR owner since 1999. The coverage on Peacock/NBC hardly shows any Defender time, though it is decent coverage, but it's a lot of other stuff.

People here just see the OCTA price tag and assume that is entirely for the engine - which is just plain silly but true.

 

As others have mentioned, the Dakar isn't widely followed here in the US. Most people, even offroaders, don't know it exists. Maybe the "Raptor/TRX" crowd does since desert running is what they do but even then. That being said, there is an awareness of what the Dakar *is* and how tough it is.

To be able to say "The Defender not only finished the Dakar, but swept the podium in its class" is something they can put on their commercials for Defender - which are already "offroady" in vibe - will be substantial in renovating the aforementioned "JLR makes sh*t cars" mentality - mostly espoused by Toyota fanboys who have little else to hang their hats on - other than *perceived* reliability and resale value.