LS3-Swapped Custom 1991 Land Rover Defender 110 Is Corvette-Powered, Darth Vader-Approved

The Series III and the Defender featured similar styling, and these original designs date back to the mid-1960s. You can go back even further to the Series II, although the further back you go, the more visual differences you’ll find between those older trucks and the mid-80s Defender.

Anyway, the point is that you can’t have an iconic design if it doesn’t withstand the test of time, and the Defender has more than cemented its place among automotive royalty. It might take the better part of a century for the current model to catch up, in terms of being as recognizable, although personally, I have a feeling that it never will.

We’re living in different times, and current designs are getting updated a lot more often than they used to. Besides, they’ll probably have to redesign it once more when they turn it into a fully electric off roader with its own dedicated architecture, but that’s unlikely to happen any time soon.

Yes, the current Defender will likely get an electric variant within the next few years, but it won’t be a bespoke design, and you wouldn’t want to take it on long journeys into the wilderness either. But I digress.

We’re here to talk about this ridiculously rugged and good-looking Arkonik-tuned 1991 Defender 110, wearing Santorini Black.

It left the factory as a single-cab model but was later converted into a dual-cab truck. That’s when it also received additional LED lights for the custom front bumper, a Warn Zeon-S winch, front and rear guards, a tubular rear bumper and side steps, Puma-style hood, flared wheel arches, an exterior roll cage, roof basket, intake snorkel, and a set of black 16” wheels with 285/75 BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 tires.

Interior highlights include the black leather front and rear bucket seats with red diamond stitching, air conditioning, heated front seats, locking center console, electric windows, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, and a Pioneer touchscreen head unit with sat-nav and a rear-view camera.

As for the engine, its factory-standard 3.5-liter V8 was ditched in favor of a 6.2-liter LS3 V8, working alongside a five-speed manual gearbox with a locking center differential and an Ashcroft LT230 dual-range transfer case.

This truck sold for $85,000 earlier this week and it was probably worth every penny.

A bit too much?

Some might argue that such an off-roader could feel overly engineered, which is kind of ridiculous. I mean, just last week we showed you this other custom 1995 Defender 110 single cab truck, which came with its original 300Tdi turbo-diesel engine.

Beautiful truck, ridiculously underpowered engine.