Land Rover Is Bringing Back a Defender Off-Road Competition

The Camel Trophy was a legendary off-roading competition from the 1980s and 1990s that is most famous for introducing the world to some seriously tough Land Rovers. This week, Land Rover announced it was bringing back a version of the competition shined up—or dusted off, if you will—for a new decade.

The Defender Trophy will be contested by entrants from over 50 countries, with local competitions held before a final round that will be staged in Africa next year. On its face, the requirements to participate are a pretty easy bar to clear.

“Eligibility requirements include: entrants are resident in a participating country, over 23 years old, can swim 50 meters, eligible to drive and travel internationally, and speak fluent English,” Land Rover says in a statement, adding, “an unstoppable spirit is essential.”

The competition will feature driving challenges, which are exactly what you think: rocky inclines and steep drops, along with trails. Also included are “ingenuity challenges,” which are less defined in Land Rover’s press release, but they sound like mental puzzles of some sort, and “physical challenges,” which incorporate strength and teamwork—and are presumably why one of the eligibility requirements is the ability to swim 50 meters.

The competition will include use of the new Land Rover Defender Trophy Edition, which only comes in two (outstanding) colors, Deep Sandglow Yellow or Keswick Green. Under the hood is a 3.0-liter inline-six engine mated to an automatic gearbox making 395 brake horsepower. That model also has modifications suited for the off-road life, like a deployable roof ladder, a side-mounted gear carrier, mud flaps, and raised air intake to help keep dust out. A sturdier roof rack on top, meanwhile, is for storing gear needed for long journeys on rocks, snow, desert, or forest.

The Defender Trophy will be “shared” online in some capacity, so those of us without the gumption to participate can at least follow along virtually. Land Rover is also hoping that the Defender Trophy burnishes the off-road credentials of the new Defender in much the same way that the Camel Trophy did with the old one. The Defender Trophy will probably, at the very least, produce a few interesting-looking survivor cars.

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