Photo: Jaguar Land Rover
The Land Rover Defender (originally called Ninety and One Ten) is currently enjoying its modern life thanks to the new generation being completely rebuilt for the 21st century. But the previous incarnation, which ceased production back in 2016, still has some kicks left in it, it seems.
Actually, that’s a big understatement, considering the flurry of custom projects based on it – coming from both the United Kingdom and the United States. And wait, because there’s even more – just remember the legal battle between Ineos Automotive and Jaguar Land Rover for the right to build the new Ineos Grenadier.
It turns out JLR had more than one reason to try and stop the creation of an unrelated spiritual successor. Bowler Motors, a tuner well known for its motorsport-inspired Land Rover projects, has been officially granted permission to use the classic Land Rover Defender as the base for upcoming high-performance vehicles.
Well, the new license agreement is actually an in-house affair, because Bowler has renounced its independence late last year and is now a member of the JLR family, acting as a subsidiary of the Special Vehicle Operations division.
That and the exact license agreement details are just technical stuff for the lawyers, and it’s much more important to note that Bowler is already well underway with the creation of a new-old Defender 110 station wagon for on-road use as part of a project co-developed with SVO.
It doesn’t have a name just yet – just a code, “CSP 575” - but we already know it will combine the classic Defender 110 design, Bowler’s motorsport derived CSP steel chassis, and Land Rover’s flagship V8 supercharged engine.
That’s right – the upcoming Bowler CSP 575 will be sporting under the vintage-looking hood the very modern 5.0-liter supercharged V8 in its 575 ps (567 hp) form! It should be a sight to behold (the images in the gallery are just CGIs), complete with just four sports seats inside and a roll cage.
Naturally, it will have a prohibitive pricing point of £200k (around $260k at the current exchange rates), with the order books scheduled to open sometime next year, initially with availability of the limited series just for the UK and Europe.
It turns out JLR had more than one reason to try and stop the creation of an unrelated spiritual successor. Bowler Motors, a tuner well known for its motorsport-inspired Land Rover projects, has been officially granted permission to use the classic Land Rover Defender as the base for upcoming high-performance vehicles.
Well, the new license agreement is actually an in-house affair, because Bowler has renounced its independence late last year and is now a member of the JLR family, acting as a subsidiary of the Special Vehicle Operations division.
That and the exact license agreement details are just technical stuff for the lawyers, and it’s much more important to note that Bowler is already well underway with the creation of a new-old Defender 110 station wagon for on-road use as part of a project co-developed with SVO.
It doesn’t have a name just yet – just a code, “CSP 575” - but we already know it will combine the classic Defender 110 design, Bowler’s motorsport derived CSP steel chassis, and Land Rover’s flagship V8 supercharged engine.
That’s right – the upcoming Bowler CSP 575 will be sporting under the vintage-looking hood the very modern 5.0-liter supercharged V8 in its 575 ps (567 hp) form! It should be a sight to behold (the images in the gallery are just CGIs), complete with just four sports seats inside and a roll cage.
Naturally, it will have a prohibitive pricing point of £200k (around $260k at the current exchange rates), with the order books scheduled to open sometime next year, initially with availability of the limited series just for the UK and Europe.
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