Land Rover Defender OCTA will compete at Dakar

Land Rover has announced that its Dakar Rally challenger will be a ‘competition-spec’ car based on the Defender Octa. The entry comes as part of a full FIA World Rally Raid Championship (W2RC) programme. 

Between 2026 and 2028, two Defenders will take part across the full five rounds of the W2RC, with a third participating in the Dakar, which acts as the Championship’s halo event. 

The Dakar has already had a good look at the Defender in the meantime, because in the 2025 event – which ran from 3-17 January – it was the “official car partner”, with Land Rover supplying no fewer than 20 ‘recce’ vehicles to rally officials. 

On next year’s entry, Land Rover said: “Selecting Defender OCTA – the fastest and most capable Defender ever made – as the basis for the rally-raid programme was a natural choice.” 

This year’s experience should stand Land Rover in good stead for its debut in the Dakar in 2026. We don’t know what specific technical changes will be made to the Defender in order for it to compete, although it’ll retain the same D7x architecture, a twin-turbocharged V8 (which produces 626bhp in the road car) and even the same eight-speed automatic transmission. 

Mark Cameron, Defender Managing Director said: “Taking on the most demanding rally-raid event in the world represents the ultimate test of our most extreme Defender to date. We know that Dakar will be an immense challenge, but Defender OCTA combines huge performance with characteristic Defender capability and durability – the perfect foundations for what I’m confident will be a highly competitive rally-raid vehicle.”

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