THE Land Rover Defender prototype is now in Dubai with the 4×4 experts at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) as part of the upcoming model’s testing program.
The tests are also the result of a renewed three-year global partnership between Land Rover and the IFRC. The alliance focuses on disaster preparedness and response initiatives. Land Rover has supported the IFRC since 1954.
The prototype vehicle visited the IFRC global fleet base in Dubai, ahead of its public debut later this year.
Land Rover engineers demonstrated the vehicle’s breadth of capability to their IFRC counterparts both on and off road, before the IFRC fleet experts took to the wheel to test the vehicle for themselves on the region’s desert sand dunes and the twisty tarmac of Jebel Jais highway, experiencing the assured handling and comfort of the new 4×4 as they wound their way up the tallest mountain in the United Arab Emirates.
The IFRC fleet experts tested the Defender in soft sand among the rolling dunes of the desert, where the prototype model tackled the steep ascents, demanding side slopes and blind crests. Temperatures reached over 40 degrees Celsius. The Defender was also tested on Jebel Jais highway for its on-road comfort and agile handling, scaling altitudes of nearly 2,000 meters.
“Jaguar Land Rover is proud to support the work of the IFRC. Since 1954 our vehicles have enabled access to remote and vulnerable communities, helping them become more resilient, and we hope the new Defender will maintain this heritage. The dunes of Dubai are the perfect place to confirm that this is the most capable Land Rover ever made. It sits on tires with an overall diameter of up to 815 millimeters, resulting in a very large contact patch. Coupled with our bespoke traction control system, which monitors and adjusts for a large variety of terrains, this makes the new Defender fantastic on sand and incredibly smooth on road as well,” said Nick Rogers, Jaguar Land Rover executive director for product engineering.
The testing program for Defender prototypes have so far covered more than 1.2 million kilometers, including a week-long program with wildlife conservation charity Tusk, in Kenya, and an appearance at the last Goodwood Festival of Speed.
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