The 2025 Defender OCTA is a Rare Gem
Story by Dwain Hebda // Images Provided
Throughout the history of automaking, there have been vehicles that have failed to live up to their billing, and there are models that meet expectations. Then there’s the Defender OCTA by Land Rover for which, it would seem, no amount of hype is too great.
Not unlike the snowy hillsides, sandy dunes, swampy marshlands, and mountain turns it blows through with ease, the Defender OCTA has conquered every hyperbole those in the know—and especially those in the auto press—can dream up.
“If there’s another road car on sale with a broader range of abilities, we’ve yet to drive it…of its type, the OCTA is the best there is,” crowed Steve Sutcliffe of AutoExpress.com.
“I’m standing in front of a car wearing a Defender badge that will comfortably challenge a Ferrari F50 in a traffic-light sprint with its 0-62 mph time of 3.8 seconds…(that) can also hurtle across landscapes that would reduce its Italian counterpart to fusilli-sized pieces, pronto,” gushed Rory FH Smith of Gentleman’s Journal.
Closer to home, the praise is no less abundant. ONYX Automotive sales managers Michael Igwenma and Phil Hatten have seen their share of cars-of-the-moment and even they are left scrambling for the words to adequately describe the Defender OCTA phenomenon.
“Between the two of us, we probably have 50 years of auto experience,” Hatten said. “There’s not many times a new vehicle gets here and both of us are like, ‘Wow.’ This one is something else.”
With a model as eye-popping as the Defender OCTA, it’s hard to know where to start in describing it, but the power plant is as good as any. The vehicle pairs a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 with an eight-speed automatic transmission to churn out 626 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque. All that juice can be apportioned correctly to road conditions, thanks to “OCTA Mode,” activated by a button on the steering wheel. OCTA Mode includes a new Off-Road Launch control for loose surfaces, while the terrain response system provides settings to handle sand, mud, grass, gravel, snow, and rock crawling. Ideal driving conditions? Switch to Comfort or Dynamic modes for over-the-road and let ’er rip.
“The Defender OCTA is catching past customers’ eyes but also sparking interest in people who just like really fast cars,” Hatten said. “It’s getting the attention of the people who have the Ferraris and the Lamborghinis.”
For as sexy as that all is, it is the suspension that is getting the lion’s share of attention. Land Rover took its already world-beating air suspension and improved it with a hydraulic interlink system that pumps hydraulic fluid around the four corners of the car to smooth out even the gnarliest terrain while keeping all four tires on the road through curves and turns. It is an engineering marvel that gets a true motorist’s blood pumping, including Igwenma’s.
“To me, the big thing was the 6D Dynamics suspension. This is first of its class and there is no vehicle out there in the world that’s actually done anything like this,” Igwenma said. “It’s got a hydraulic interlink which handles and grips the road, even for a heavier vehicle, when you’re turning at higher speeds. There’s minimum sway either left or right where you’re turning really fast. It’s probably the best-riding car you’re ever going to drive for its class.”
From a design perspective, the OCTA gives the driver off-road capability without a tank-like appearance. Taller and wider than the standard Defender 110, the OCTA introduces a touch of design elegance into what is still a beast for the outdoors. Thus, at the same time, it allows for wading up to 3.3 feet deep and provides better scaling capabilities due to greater ground clearance and specially developed 33-inch tires. It also looks very good doing it.
Even the very name, “OCTA,” specifically refers to the OCTAhedral shape of cut diamonds, indicative of both durability and luxury.
“Just the little things that they did to the wheel arches, the wheel spats, the front grill,” Hatten said. “It doesn’t take too long to look at it to know that it is 100% different than the regular Defender that’s sitting on the showroom floor.”
With all of that going for it, one might think the OCTA was soon to be seen on every street and corner in America. The fact that it isn’t has less to do with performance and design excellence or even the fact it starts out at around $150,000 MSRP. No, the reason spotting one is roughly akin to spotting Sasquatch along Interstate 80 is because there’s just not that many to be had, and what ones are delivered to local dealerships are gone just as quickly.
“The vehicle started showing up at dealers within the last 30 days,” Hatten said. “They don’t last very long; ours lasted for two days on the showroom floor. Plus, this is not a car that you can order just because you want one. They are being produced in very limited numbers. We got our hands on one, and there’s a chance we’ll get another one, but that wouldn’t be until the fall when we’d see that.”
“Our manufacturer does a great job of marketing, so they put the word out and they’ve been putting the buzz on this vehicle since about a year ago,” Igwenma said. “It’s created a lot of buzz and there were a lot of spy photos out there in the media, if you follow any of that. Unfortunately, to Phil’s point, it’s not going to be a vehicle that’s available for the masses.”
So therein lies the rub: nearly everything short of running out of gas that the Defender OCTA owner could face on or off the road has been solved, except the fact that the vehicle itself is one of the most elusive finds of the production automotive world. If you’re fortunate enough to have the opportunity to purchase one yourself, chances are it will exceed your wildest expectations.
“Is it fun?” asked Eric Stafford of Car & Driver, rhetorically. “After two days and roughly 400 miles of driving on the paved highways, gravel roads, rocky trails and sand dunes…it’s clear the OCTA excels at everything.
For more information, visit onyxautomotive.com.
