Just Gas

It’s time to put my money where my mouth is and start sketching. I’ve thought about how far the new Defender will have to leap from its ancestors to avoid the trap of (retro) recreation and be a true evolution of the original design. I’ve tried to come up with real world examples (other than the Land Rover) where this has worked: The Porsche 911 is probably a prime candidate– funny enough, its ancestor, the VW Beetle, did in my opinion eventually fall into the retro crap trap with the New Beetle. Yes, it was commercially successful, but that’s beside the point. Artistically it is not much more than a modern regurgitation of the original. Was that thing not designed in California? Which brings me to my next assault: When Detroit -you know who I mean- had lost all creativity and hit a brick wall, they took the easy way out and came up with a ‘greatest hits’ album – offering nothing more than the original release. Result: shamelessly uninspired, insipid copies of iconic designs: Thunderbird, GT40, Mustang, Challenger, Camaro. Prowler, Chevy SSR and should I even mention the biggest failure of all retrocities, the P/T Cruiser (I could never figure out what “P/T” stood for; part time? That wouldn’t make sense, well, the whole car makes NO sense, so it could very well stand for ‘part time’ as in ‘part time inspiration’ – OK, I’ll let it go). I don’t mean to say that whatever came out of the Big Three in the wave of retro creations was all phart and no shit. The Chrysler 300 and Dodge Viper make (made) a good case for inspired creativity. These designs blended the look and feel of a bygone era into a great package that made a mark in its own day and age and one that will serve as a reference point for future designs by their own right.

So what we need to aspire to is (r)evolution and not recreation. Recreation is not the road I want to see the new Defender go down, as this will end up being a very disappointing ride. An icon such as the Defender deserves the longevity that evolution brings, just as a legend like the Porsche 911 has been treated to since the introduction of the 356 A. However even Porsche did not remain unscathed along the way by the status that the 911 had garnered. When it tried to bring the 911 to a new era by attempting to replace it with the 928, it failed royally. Don’t get me wrong, I think that the 928 is a great car – even to this day, a mighty GT - but it simply was no match, let alone replacement, for the 911. The point here is that the 928 was too big a design leap to be the next iteration of the 911. It did away with too many, if not all, the design features that had given the 911 its iconic status. All that remained were swooping lines (post A pillar), however these were not the lines of 911. The crowd just did not like it for what it was supposed to be. Porsche realized this and got back on track. Today’s 911 is probably the most beautiful iteration of the original design…and the badge on the engine lid still says ‘911’.

What we learn from all of this is that evolution needs to take small steps so that we – mere mortals – can keep up with our heroes.

Land Rover has thus far taken its time in its process of evolution and remained relevant to all of us who are so passionate about the vehicle. There’s no need to change that. The evolution must continue and the car should remain relevant to us and its ‘day’.

So which design features of the Defender do we need to keep, which would we preferably have and which are we ready to let go?...stay tuned folks.