DEFENDER TAKES ON DAKAR - BRITISH GRIT MEETS THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST RALLY HEAD ON
The Dakar Rally doesn’t care about heritage, hype, or horsepower figures on a spec sheet. It only respects one thing: endurance. For 2026, Defender Rally has stepped into that arena, kicking off its competitive debut at this year’s Dakar Rally. At the heart of the campaign is the all-new Defender Dakar D7X-R, a machine built to survive nearly three weeks of punishment across some of the harshest terrain on Earth. Sand seas, rock gardens, furnace heat, mechanical fatigue, and mental exhaustion all lie ahead. This is Dakar, and there are no shortcuts.
To take it on, Defender has assembled a driver line-up that blends experience, raw speed, and boundary-pushing ambition. Dakar legend Stéphane Peterhansel returns to the desert alongside co-driver Mika Metge, bringing unrivalled rally-raid knowledge to the team. They’re joined by rising star Rokas Baciuška with Oriol Vidal, and trailblazer Sara Price, paired with Sean Berriman, continuing to redefine what elite-level rally-raid competition looks like. Until 17 January, with just a single rest day, the team will tackle almost 5,000 km of timed stages, pushing both driver and machine to their absolute limits. The Defender Dakar D7X-R competes in the ‘Stock’ category, making this not just a race effort, but a brutal real-world showcase of Defender’s core capability.
Unlike purpose-built silhouettes, the Defender Dakar D7X-R stays remarkably close to the production model, derived directly from the award-winning Defender OCTA, the most capable Defender ever made. It features a wider track, increased ride height, revised suspension and enhanced cooling systems to cope with Dakar’s extremes, but remains tightly regulated by Stock class rules.
Crucially, the bodies are built on the same production Defender assembly line at JLR’s state-of-the-art facility in Nitra, Slovakia, using the same D7x aluminium-intensive architecture, transmission and driveline layout as the road-going OCTA. Power comes from the same 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8, mechanically unchanged and running on advanced sustainable fuel. In other words, this isn’t a costume; this is a production Defender pushed to the edge.
“Defender is the perfect competitor for Dakar,” says Ian James, Team Principal of Defender Rally. “The D7X-R has performed extremely well in testing. Even so, just completing Dakar is a huge achievement. We don’t underestimate the challenge that lies ahead. But with our incredible driver line-up, strong partners, and the Defender Dakar D7X-R, we’re ready.”
Defender Rally also announced two major new partnerships. YETI joins as the Official Coolers, Bags and Drinkware Partner, equipping the team with premium outdoor gear designed to survive brutal environments. Beyond logistics, the partnership will focus on new innovations tailored specifically to Dakar, while bringing the team’s behind-the-scenes stories to life. Bell & Ross steps in as Official Timing Partner, supplying the team with timepieces built around the same principles as Defender itself: durability, clarity, and absolute reliability under pressure. These partnerships join existing collaborators Castrol, Bilstein, Shackleton and Alpinestars, forming a support network engineered for survival, not comfort.
Take a look at the YouTube video that kicks off a whole series about the prep of the Defender to be ready to compete in the world's toughest race - it's an interesting series, worth a watch for brand and race fans: Defender Dakar | Introducing the D7X-R rally car | Defender
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