Land Rover has officially announced its entry in the Dakar Rally and FIA World Rally Raid Championship for the year 2026. Both the events are regarded as the toughest off-roading competitions on the global scale and it will be thrilling to see Land Rover making its debut at the events.
Defender has its share of popularity internationally and is known for its impeccable off-roading control. This motivated the British brand to choose the Land Rover Defender Octa to be its entry in the international rally competitions. Defender will run a two-vehicle entry of competition-spec Defenders across the full five rounds of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) under the 'Stock' category for production-based vehicles, and a three-vehicle entry in the championship's halo event, the Dakar Rally, from 2026.
Mark Cameron, Defender Managing Director, expressed his trust over Octa and quoted- "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."
Adding further, James Barclay, JLR Motorsport Managing Director, said- "Defender competing in Dakar will be an incredibly exciting challenge. We had a vision for the future of production-based vehicles in rally-raid so it has been incredibly positive to align with the ASO, FIA and other manufacturers and work collaboratively to create the new regulations for the 'Stock' category. We now have the right platform to authentically demonstrate Defender's capability in the biggest challenge in off-road motorsport. Ahead of us is a year of detailed preparation, testing and learning to be ready for Dakar 2026. The team are already well under way and we are very much looking forward to competing in both Dakar and W2RC - the world's toughest off-road events."
Dakar and FIA have realised the immense popularity of 4x4 SUVs in the rally category and are now open to new regulations for the enhancement of performance. Which makes Defender Octa a worthy nomination as it gets DX7 robust body architecture, 3X stronger body-on-frame design, which gives it impressive torsional rigidity.