Land Rover's Defender brand will make its debut in the Dakar Rally in 2026, competing in the production-car Stock category.
The Defender brand has announced plans to enter the Dakar Rally in 2026 as part of a three-year programme. The British manufacturer, a subsidiary of Land Rover , will field two examples of the popular Defender in all rounds of the World-Rally Raid Championship next year, with an additional third vehicle added to its line-up for Dakar.
Defender will compete in the Stock category that is reserved for production cars, although the sporting and technical regulations will be updated in 2026 to make the class more competitive and allow manufacturers to show what they are capable of in a rally-raid. Explaining the decision to enter Dakar in the Stock division, as opposed to the Ultimate class that features prototypes from the likes of Toyota, Dacia and Ford, JLR Motorsport's managing director James Barclay told reporters including Motorsport.com: 'For us to come with Ultimate is not authentic, the Defender is the original off-road vehicle. 'It was the first four-wheel drive off-roader in history, so for us to come into motorsport, it's not like we have to. 'It's only if we can do it the right way, and the right way is to demonstrate the capability of our incredible Defender as a production car, if we come with a space frame car that looks like a Defender, it's not authentic in our opinion. 'We wanted the challenge to be about bringing our real car to show what it is capable of, and to support this vision. 'ASO and the FIA had to look at the regulations and say, 'OK, we need to improve it'. The regulations were based on a very old concept of a production vehicle, and what we've done is work with the FIA and ASO to bring the regulations in line with the reality of what a modern production SUV is. 'The Defender is an aluminium architecture, what we call the D7X platform for Defender, an aluminium monocoque construction, three times stiffer than a normal traditional way of making an SU
Dakar Rally Defender Land Rover Stock Class Motorsport Regulations
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