Land Rover DC100 Sport – it’s the Sporty new Defender

Land Rover Defender gets funky with the DC100 Sport

It helps to have a good dose of ‘cool’ when you launch a new car. And Land Rover have a head start with the iconic Defender, which is ‘Cool’ by default. But they’ve gone a step further by revealing a sport, speedster-style Defender Concept – the Land Rover DC100 Sport – at Frankfurt this morning.

Shouting its intent from the rooftops with a canary yellow paint job, the Defender DC100 Sport is an open-topped ‘Speedster’ Defender with a twin-hump tonneau cover behind the two front seats (covering the load area and rear seats) with a cut-down, wrap-round windscreen.

Is the DC100 a serious production intent for Land Rover? Well, probably, but not with quite the number of ‘Concept-y’ features the CD100 concept has. It’s probably the price Land Rover need to pay to make the new Defender profitable. And that’s no bad thing.

The DC100 Concept looks funky and cool and should lead the Defender to a new, urban and much younger audience. That will allow Land Rover to make the proper, grown-up Defender to tackle the UN tours, jungles in Africa and the outback in Australia. Just as long as it can be relied on.

But the DC100 Sport – just like the DC100 itself – are just pointers towards the new Defender, a Defender that will be built and will arrive by 2015. At the moment Land Rover are apparently experimenting with two platforms for the new Defender.

As we’ve said before, the likely outcome is that the new Defender will use the T5 chassis, but the drawback there is weight, although its cost implications are attractive. The other way to go is an all-new chassis that can be used across all the new Defenders, and maybe elsewhere too.

It probably all depends on what the feedback is like from these first punt at a new Defender. If Land Rover feel the DC100 – and in particular the DC100 Sport – has decent potential market then the new Defender will probably get an all-new chassis.

But whichever way Land Rover go, we will get a new Defender. Which is very good news.

Even if it’s likely to be built in India

(28 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)

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By Cars UK