For real off-roading or navigating potholed Canadian streets, this SUV brings it. It really can go anywhere

Hamilton Spectator

6 days ago

GATEWAY, COLO.—The ultrafine dust — it's so fine, it's caked our vehicle and made for a dangerous particulate in the cabin, forcing me to switch to recirculated air — swirls off the vehicle ahead, and, mercifully, just to the right, thanks to some favourable winds. As a result, we aren't completely blinded; just partially. The clay-red dirt below forms a stark and beautiful contrast with the blue sky above and while cloudless, the horizon is punctuated by fortress-like buttes as far as the eye can see.
In my hands is the gorgeous two-tone leather-wrapped wheel of the all-new Defender OCTA performance SUV. It's a no-holds-barred take on the latest incarnation of the famous Land Rover Defender off-road vehicle.
Defender tested the OCTA in conditions just like this over hundreds of thousands of miles during its development and all that sweat equity has brought us here — to beautiful desolation.
We'd put it through its paces on sub-five-mph rock crawls, a fast off-road circuit and a water crossing or two. There would also be some 'normal' highway driving, but when you consider the spec, it becomes tough to focus on how well it tracks through a gentle right-hander on a divided highway at 100 kilometres-per-hour.
While the OCTA is clearly a Defender 110 variant, there's so much more going on underneath it all. For starters: just look at those wheels and tires!
Defender turned to Goodyear to develop an extra-durable tire for the OCTA, and they answered the bell by embedding Kevlar, a material used in everything from boat sails to bulletproof vests, into the tires' sidewalls. That makes it very hard for sharp rocks to punch through, which is a big deal when off-roading or navigating potholed Canadian streets.
Under the hood things get more interesting still. The OCTA is the first Defender model to get a new 4.4-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 engine. It's good for 626 horsepower and 553 pounds-feet (motive force) of torque, both healthy increases over the 5.0-litre, supercharged V8 the Defender currently uses.
It's an incredible engine that revs quickly and gives you its full slug of torque at just 1,400 rpm. That's the kind of quick power delivery you want when off-roading, as it helps pull you through steep, rough terrain.
To prove its worth, we went for a 4,000-foot climb on unforgiving mountain trails littered with rocks (average size equals a softball), loose gravel and jagged outcroppings poised to tear many a tire's sidewall and gash many a fender. Even the desert bushes are foreboding, their lives hard lived in harsh, dry, hot conditions, forcing them to develop branches with arthritic tendrils that sound like nails on a chalkboard as they 'brush' — if you can call it that — against the fenders, doors and roofs of our OCTA.
With a selection of drive modes (we chose Rock Crawl for this jaunt) and an all-new '6D Dynamic' suspension system that provides massive wheel articulation, the OCTA clambered over everything with no complaint. To help further instil confidence, the central display inside can be set to show a camera that looks over each front wheel. That's handy when you have a panel-shearing rock wall on one side, and about a foot between said wheel and a 100-foot drop on the other.
Even through a three-foot-deep river crossing in 'Wade' mode, the OCTA plowed on, the powerful engine having no problem neutralizing the water resistance. Defender says the OCTA can wade in up to a metre of water and I have no reason to think otherwise.
The fast off-road course did have me holding on that much tighter only because I wanted to see what the OCTA could do, how far I could push it. One of the drive modes is called 'OCTA,' and it allows for just a little more slip, and a little more ability to control the rear end with the throttle.
Back on the road — surprisingly quiet and comfortable, even with knobby off-road tires — I had the chance to enjoy the interior environs of this most hardcore of showroom-spec Defenders. The OCTA has heated and cooled front seats, heated rear seats (cooled if you spec the captain's chairs), Meridian audio, digital rear-view mirror, automatic climate control, 11.4-inch infotainment display and the very unique Body and Soul Seats (BASS).
More than just being heated, cooled and providing a massage feature, BASS seats, developed in conjunction with Subpac, a Toronto-based company, are tuned to vibrate with your music. Or, they can use the seat's built-in actuators and heating controls to help provide a relaxing environment if you need a break.
Through all of this I never noticed my knuckles whitening or my brow sweating (even with ambient temperatures rising to 40C) because the OCTA is so darn good at what it does. With the hardware on-hand, the computers that aid with traction and the cameras, you just don't need to think as hard to progress. I am no off-roading expert, but that just didn't matter so much here. Indeed, few people buying an OCTA will ever make full use of all that. But if you're dealing with harsh Canadian winters or pockmarked gravel roads to the cabin, it's nice to know that you can.
Type:
Five-door, four-wheel-drive, mid-size SUV
Engine:
Twin-turbocharged, 4.4-litre V8; 626 horsepower, 553 pounds-feet of torque (motive force)
Fuel:
TBA
Transmission:
Eight-speed automatic
Cargo:
786 litres, or 27.75 cubic feet; 1,875l, or 66 cu. ft. with rear seats folded
Towing:
3,719 kilograms, or 8,200 pounds
Price:
$200,884, as tested