Picked up my new (nearly new 3 months old with 4,000 miles at £23k over list but I think will hold its value for some time) Defender 110 Carpathian Edition V8 from dealer in Milton Keynes U.K. on Sunday.
Here’s my experience to date.
I’ve had a lot of cars but this has to be one of my favourites. It’s a unique blend of chunky utilitarian and luxury chic. It’s an amazing design that looks good from every angle and it’s addictive to drive. More on all that later.
I drove from U.K. to my home in Dordogne, France overnight (10 hours non-stop) and arrived at 4am last night but it was a fantastic experience. Here’s a report with what I find so good and a few not so good things.
When I collected the car it looks far better in real life than any photos or videos. It has so much presence. I’ve seen loads of Defenders but the V8 and the Carpathian edition especially looks so mean and menacing, it’s quite special.
I had a long debate with myself about wheels. This one was the best deal even though I paid over list. Others were more expensive on 22in but mine has the 20in wheels.
After lots of asking, I guessed they would work as they don’t look too “gangsta” like the 22s can do and would allow some kerb parking, driving over stuff and parking woth no worries about rim damage plus allow me to drive in dynamic mode without a harsh ride because of the 60 sidewall. I was right. It does all those things. I played with tyre pressures and have now settled for the exact light load pressure settings and that works just fine.
Car is a little wallowy in comfort mode but a nice soft forgiving ride, but in dynamic it’s spot on. Much less roll yet not an over firm ride. I haven’t driven on 22s or 23s and will reserve judgement til I do but for now, I like what I have. After all, 20in is still a big wheel.
The salesman was a lovely guy but not too knowledgable so didn’t even know there was dynamic mode lol. Once i found it, I love it.
However, unlike my previous SVR I don’t find much difference in exhaust sound between the two modes. Big difference is body control. In dynamic it’s nearly as good as a 24v system as featured on many SUV’s now.
I drove from the dealer to an exhaust specialist in preparation for a Monday morning fit to then get off back to France. That didn’t work out so well.
I had looked at Quikcsilver exhausts but didn’t like the phone app idea. A fitter in Haywards Heath who specialises in Audi tuning steered me very actively away from Quicksilver to Milltek saying the product is far superior. He tunes and fits a lot of cars and has 20 years expedience as it turns out so knows his stuff. I was to find out a lot… but in essence Milltek works with the car exhaust valves so when you switch from comfort to dynamic it opens the valves like the stock exhaust.
I arrived promptly at 8.30am. The plan was to fit the non-res Milltek first and if it wasn’t too loud keep that. If not, we ordered a middle silencer box as an option to make it resonated.
The job took 90 mins and the sound (see below the loud clip) is insane. Far, far louder in real life, believe me. The loudest exhaust I’ve ever heard.
But on a test drive the non res creates a drone / reverb like a feedback loop on a mic between 1,000 and 1,500 revs. Milltek warned me as did Urban, but the fitter, Kim Collins at QS Tuning said the res version isn’t worth it as sounds just like the stock.
So he drove with me, we frightened lots of pedestrians as decibel levels are extreme but he said he couldn’t hear the boom.
I’m puzzled as to me it was really onviiis and annoying but maybe he’s heard too many loud exhausts as have others in here who told me they hear no drone or reverb. Is it because I have a 110 and 90s are ok? Who knows….
Anyway, no problem as we had the silencer box ro add. No we didn’t. Milltek sent the wrong part. Great. But credit to them they sent a same day courier with the correct one….
But the 3 hours delivery time became 6 hours and instead of leaving at 10am for France if it had been there initially as ordered, I was still sitting there at 5pm.
Finally too idiot drivers arrived at 5.30 pm having lied many times on arrival times and we got fitting. But by now everything was stressed as the ramp was needlessly occupied and I was sitting doing nothing for 7 hours.
So we fitted the res box and sadly, now gone completely is the fire and brimstone extreme start up and fire breathing. It crackles and pops a little on hard revs like the stock but no drama.
I set off for France and finally arrived at. 4am. However, I had plenty of time to evaluate the car and exhaust.
On the car, I only have four minor criticisms… the auto matrix headlights don’t work too well on motorways. Yes, I switxpched to drive on right mode in settings.
Many people complained of being blinded it seems. Also, the interior mood lighting could be brighter, as the highest setting is like the lowest setting on Bentley or Merc. I see no pause button for media which is annoying. Lastly, the way to change driving mode is a little fiddly. I’d like to see a dedicated wheel.
Other than that, it’s damn near perfect. Such comfortable seats, lovely trim, controls, drive is silky smooth. Little wind noise until 85mph plus but not much really seeing it’s a flying brick. So sure footed on 20s with Pirelli Scorpion Zero All Seasons, great progressive brakes, responsive steering, so stable you feel at speed it’s hard to change its course and can actually drive hands free on a straight road. Spacious. Lovely fridge, lovely touchscreen, it goes on…. Huge cargo. I carried a tennis ball machine in the back no issues.
However, the exhaust, though it makes a lovely low deep throaty rumble and throb on tick over (deepens slightly in dynamic mode) it’s not at all audible on revving in the cabin at all. It might pop but can’t hear it inside as sound proofing is so good.
Also, it too drones between 1,000 and 1,500 revs.
Clearly that’s the resonating frequency of the car. But with a silencer box this is odd as it’s there to eliminate this. Also no difference at all between confort and dynamic mode in terms of sound exhaust on tick over so how come if the valves are opening and closing, which they are. All very odd to me.
So the wife loves it and strangely doesn’t mind the droning at 1,000 to 1,500 at all. In real life this means a 50mph road work speed limit is very drony to me and I used paddles to change revs to avoid but 70, 80, 90 and 100mph all fine.
FI wouldn’t venture over 100mph myself even though the car is claimed at 149mph as it just doesn’t feel it should be doing that, fuel economy would be silly and I value my clean licence so tend to cruise nearer 70-80mph which has minimal wind noise.
Arriving here in France and cleaning the car today produced the photos and videos below. It is such a well designed and built machine. We call ours The Beast because it really is. Alongside my Ranger Raptor the latter looks almost puny. Love the blue calipers too. Shame not all round.
Such is my surprise that the wife doesn’t mind the droning (is it just me?) I’ve now told Kim when I’m next back in the U.K. I’ll remove the silencer for a day and see if I can live with it with the wife. Maybe we will be used to the mild drone by then so it won’t be too much different. I really hope so as the non-res sound really is insane, even louder then the 427 cobra I had.
So overall, I love this car and thinks it’s amazing and amazing value, even at over list price since it’s so complete and really does turn heads.
Let me know what you all think and how other V8 owners find their wheels and exhausts.
Ps. Do the larger classic mudflaps stop mid getting on the sills? I’ve got the deployable side steps and they get coated with mud woth the smaller mudflaps I’ve got.

 

Videos

 

Forgot t9 mention there is a noticeable increase in power with the Milltek. Engine breathes more freely and feels just like my old SVR in terms of power.

 

Holy cow thank you for this awesome writeup! Your truck looks amazing! Sinister for sure

It's interesting, my Audi RS6 has valved exhaust and when I switch to "RS" mode the valves open. I would have expected the same in the Defender in dynamic mode. On the RS6 I just had the resonators cut out of the stock exhaust (not sure if this is possible with the Defender - have not seen a pic of the exhaust system) with no droning. I personally can not stand droning.... That would be a non-starter for me. The exhaust sounds amazing!!

Long may she run!!

Matt

 

wow, can’t believe you didn’t run out of characters.

congrats on the new ride and you summed up the description pretty well

I also have a v8 with Milltek system but i am in the states and don’t have opf/ppf. i bought the system with both straight pipes and resonators. Haven’t tried the straight pipes but i would assume it would be way too loud.

I do get a small amount of slight drone from 1-1.5k rpm at slow speeds but it only last for a couple secs. most of it is hardly noticeable.

the resonator cleans up the raw raspy sound that you hear on the Urban Videos. minor pops and bangs in dynamic mode. sometimes i wish for more but my other cars burbles like crazy so i am ok without it.

i have been trying to figure out when the valves open and close and finally figuring it out. Valves will be closed in comfort but on decent acceleration the valves will open and stay open till you get to a stop. i have yet seen them auto close while driving. there is a tone change but you are prob hearing it full open.

eco mode fully closes the valves so if you wanted to try that you could hear the difference. the muffler is a very straight through design even with the valve side with very little flow actually entering into the muffler. seems almost pointless. Dynamic will
open the valves and to you should hear a tone change with the higher rpm.

i do agree that the system has increased power in a very noticeable way. you could feel the hesitation with the stock system

 

Thanks. I wanted to provide a detailed review of the purchase and exhaust to help others as my reading had mixed info before I bought.

i recently did some reading on exhaust drone and many people suggest it’s about the weight of the exhaust related to the engine which all vibrates.

Apparently you can add some weights to the exhaust to change the density and get rid of the drone.

Has anyone done this or know about this as the goal for me is to have the non-res version with no drone,

 

TheEscapist - Out of interest, what's the width of garage entrance? Do you need to fold mirrors?
I've got a 90 on order and garage will be tight squeeze!

 

@TheEscapist - Awesome write-up! I read every word and it was a great lead up to the fantastic pics. Really wanted a V8 but wasn't willing to wait when I ordered mine. One thing about the interior mood lights. I don't have them, but I found the interior lights were WAY too low. So I ordered the PowerfulUk upgrades and that was perfect. Later, the front foot wells were too bright so I went back to the originals because I couldn't find the Goldilocks versions. The upgrade in the back helped a lot.

Keep the stories and pics of other adventures coming!

 

Thank you so much for the writeup. This was very helpful and I ended up ordering a Resonated Milltek for my 110 V8 CE. I ordered the Black Cerakote kit with tips. 6 weeks for delivery.