Spotted: Land Rover Defender may win version with 620 hp V8 engine

New would be part of the brand’s SVX line and would use a BMW engine.

Land Rover continues to develop a more powerful version of the Defender that is expected to wear the SVX badge, the company’s performance division. Now, new snapshot images give us the first close-up look at what the final product should look like. The Defender SVX will reportedly use the current V8 model as a starting point.

However, the idea is to turn it into an even more robust model. At the front, some larger vents are apparent to direct more air to the more powerful engine under the Land Rover ‘s bonnet . These photos also show a plate that serves as a kind of protector for the lower part of the propeller.

Looks like the fenders are a little wider than on the standard Defender V8. The cars spotted were using BFGoodrich Trail Terrain T/A tires. The height of the free span in relation to the ground also appears to be greater than seen in the existing model. The rear largely resembles the existing Defender V8. There are still four exhaust pipes coming out of the rear, but the tips are a different, sharper design.

According to previous speculation, the Defender SVX could use a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 from BMW instead of the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 in the current Defender V8. The existing engine has 520 hp of power, Meanwhile, the latest version of the German engine, found in the X5 M Competition and X6 M Competition has 620 hp. Of course, when installed in the Defender, the BMW engine can deliver a different power and torque delivery.

We don’t know anything about the Defender SVX’s price, but given its position in the lineup, we expect the model to cost more than current configurations equipped with the V8 engine. Land Rover recently added a third shift at its factory in Slovakia, where the company builds the Defender, to meet high demand. Around a quarter of the nearly 214,000 orders that the Jaguar Land Rover group has yet to deliver are represented by the Defender.