Everybody knows the Land Rover and Range Rover nameplates. These have been quietly and expertly crafted over time, in fact, one could even rightly imagine that such a marque was formed from as far as time can stretch.Warlords and their troops favour them to keep going where even a mountain goat would not dare venture, peace keepers and most military outfits swear by them. Most Tswana kids born in the eighties or before simply know what you are talking about when you say 'Defender'. So then, it's a name that conjures fear (if you grew up seeing rebels perched high on their fenders) or hope if you think of the white United Nations peacekeepers steeds but for most of us we simply grew up knowing it as the V8. But like the Pope, it needs change once in a while to keep with the times because truth told, these are old cars!
Sixty seven years after the first Defender was screwed together, Land Rover is now thinking about building its replacement, 67 years later. But when you have something that possibly outlasts religion, you are going to be very cautious about tinkering with it because imagine the outcry if the Egyptian government were to demolish thei own pyramids, not any country's, but their very own and decided to construct skyscrapers in their place. Now as much as said pyramids are landmarks, the V8 is also an automotive equivalent of that. Gerry McGovern, Land Rover's Director of Design, says: "Replacing the iconic Defender is one of the biggest challenges in the automotive design world; it is a car that inspires people worldwide. The DC100 isn't a production-ready concept, but the beginning of a four-year journey to design a relevant Defender for the 21st century." That's right, the replacement is likely to be called that; DC100, and that already is as cool a name as you could wish for, maybe it stands for Defender Concept but wouldn't it have sounded much sweeter if they went all out and simply said Defender Concept 101? How cool is that?
