Land Rover’s Three-Door Defender Has The Makings Of A Super-SUV, But It’s Missing One Thing

There’s something cool about three-door SUVs. There’s something also cool about fast off-road-oriented SUVs. These categories are rarely combined, however. Possibly because the resulting creation would be jaw-dropping enough to rip a hole in the space-time continuum, but more likely because the market is rather small. That doesn’t stop people like me from dreaming, though. Dreaming about stuff like a really quick three-door Land Rover Defender 90.

Five years ago, Land Rover dropped its supercharged five-liter V8 into a three-door Defender 90 to create the very sensibly named Defender 90 V8. It was cool. I mean come on, how many three-door SUVs exist at all today, let alone ones with fire-breathing muscle under the hood? We’re talking 518 horsepower, zero-to-60 MPH in a shade under five seconds, and some of the naughtiest V8 noises ever to come from an SUV of this silhouette. However, this 518-horsepower model’s reign as the most potent modern Defender didn’t last very long.

In 2024, Land Rover went one step further, taking a five-door Defender 110 and fitting it with the 626-horsepower V8 from a BMW M5, trick active hydraulic suspension, and brake discs bigger than some cars’ wheels. It’s called the Octa, and its performance is simply on another level to the Defender 90 V8. Figures like zero-to-60 mph in fewer than four seconds, the quarter-mile in the mid-12s, and a top speed of 155 MPH. Extra-wide fenders cover the increased track width, dry sump lubrication keeps the oil where it’s supposed to be, and off-road launch control to spit power down from a stop even when the going gets slippery. You can almost think of the Defender Octa as the spirit of a Raptor in a Henry Poole dinner jacket. The only way to make it cooler is to subtract a pair of doors.

The Defender 90 Vertex is not an Octa. It doesn’t get that model’s V8 or its trick suspension, but it does seem to borrow inspiration from some of the top Defender’s aggressive visual touches. The wide-mouthed front bumper is new, but it looks far more Octa than the standard model.

Big 22-inch seven-spoke wheels fill the body-colored arches, a small spoiler fills out the roofline, and yellow accents on the brake calipers and rear recovery hooks add a splash of color. None of it appears to be carried over from its brawnier sibling, but a thread of DNA’s still there. Unsurprisingly, it works fabulously to bridge the gap between the standard factory look and more aggressive aftermarket tuner efforts.

Under the hood, you’ll find Land Rover’s three-liter turbocharged straight-six making 395 horsepower. Hitched to a ZF eight-speed automatic gearbox, that should be plenty quick enough for most, and it offers some serious towing capacity. In this spec, the Defender 90 is a vehicle shorter than a Honda Civic sedan with a rated towing capacity of 8,900 pounds. That’s serious stuff, although it’s not quite turbocharged V8 thrust.

Of course, you can also get a Defender Vertex in five-door 110 and long-bodied 130 form. However, with the three-door body style picked, a real image emerges. Squint just a touch and you could imagine what a Defender 90 Octa would look like. It would be as fabulous as it would be niche, and thanks to looser North American emissions standards, would still sport the full 626 horsepower, unlike Europe’s new Euro 6e-bis-compliant 533-horsepower state of tune. Come on, Special Vehicle Operations. You know you want to.

Top graphic image: Land Rover