Defender to join Dakar Rally from 2026

The Defender model has introduced plans to enter the Dakar Rally in 2026 as a part of a three-year programme.

The British producer, a subsidiary of Land Rover, will subject two examples of the favored Defender in all rounds of the World-Rally Raid Championship subsequent yr, with an extra third automobile added to its line-up for Dakar.

Defender will compete within the Inventory class that’s reserved for manufacturing vehicles, though the sporting and technical laws might be up to date in 2026 to make the category extra aggressive and permit producers to indicate what they’re able to in a rally-raid.

Explaining the choice to enter Dakar within the Inventory division, versus the Final class that options prototypes from the likes of Toyota, Dacia and Ford, JLR Motorsport’s managing director James Barclay instructed reporters together with Motorsport.com: “For us to return with Final is just not genuine, the Defender is the unique off-road automobile.

“It was the primary four-wheel drive off-roader in historical past, so for us to return into motorsport, it is not like now we have to.

“It is provided that we are able to do it the proper approach, and the proper approach is to exhibit the aptitude of our unbelievable Defender as a manufacturing automotive, if we include an area body automotive that appears like a Defender, it is not genuine in our opinion.

“We wished the problem to be about bringing our actual automotive to indicate what it’s able to, and to help this imaginative and prescient.

“ASO and the FIA had to take a look at the laws and say, ‘OK, we have to enhance it’. The laws had been based mostly on a really outdated idea of a manufacturing automobile, and what we have performed is figure with the FIA and ASO to carry the laws in keeping with the fact of what a contemporary manufacturing SUV is.

“The Defender is an aluminium structure, what we name the D7X platform for Defender, an aluminium monocoque building, thrice stiffer than a standard conventional approach of constructing an SUV.

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“And the powertrains are additionally very attention-grabbing, and we’ll share extra info on that later. If you take a look at off-road sport, we expect there’s a huge alternative, in the event you evaluate GT3 and GT4 in circuit racing, in 2000 when the class was created, there was little or no GT racing, and in the event you take a look at it now, GT racing is prolific with GT3 and GT4, whereas in off-road racing, there’s a huge alternative.”

Defender has but to announce the drivers for its three-car assault for the Dakar, however stated it’s on the lookout for skilled runners to steer the programme. A feminine driver may be recruited as a part of its line-up.

Defender is already the official automobile associate for Dakar this yr and has provided 20 SUVs to ferry race officers and VIPs. An additional six modified Recee autos will be part of the fleet to assist organise ASO plan the route for the 2026, ’27 and ’28 editions of the Dakar.

Defender stated it has already begun a complete improvement programme with its new rally-raid contender and that it’s going to run the automobile in a aggressive surroundings for the primary time in Autumn 2025.

This can precede the automotive’s maiden outing within the forty eighth version of Dakar in January 2026.