Ineos grenadier is this spiritual successor to the original defender a vanity project or the real deal?

When Land Rover retired the original Defender, petrochemicals billionaire and Defender buff Sir Jim Ratcliffe offered to buy the design rights and production-line tooling so that the model might live on. JLR refused and the result of that decision is the subject of this week’s road test.

Only in 2017 did Ratcliffe reveal his intention to produce (from a standing start) an uncompromising, old-school off-roader in the mould of the Defender, and since then the project has rarely been out of the limelight. Plans to build this serious 4x4 in South Wales were shelved when the modern, well-sited Hambach plant in eastern France, where for decades Daimler built Smarts, became available. All the while, JLR and Ineos Automotive were engaged in a legal dispute over the trademark rights for the very shape of the old Defender. JLR eventually lost, and the way for ‘Grenadier’ production was paved.

We have driven the Grenadier before, twice in prototype form (including up the truly inhospitable Schöckl mountain trail) and once in full production form. We already know that, once untethered from the public highway, this car will at least match, and possibly outperform, the original Defender. For some, that will mean a job largely done. But now the Grenadier undergoes a full road test to discover what it’s like in a broader sense. How does it conduct itself day to day? How efficient is its BMW-sourced powerplant? Does this car feel something of a pastiche, or is it the real deal for classic Defender lovers? Time to find out.

DESIGN AND ENGINEERING

AAAAC

Land Rover’s reincarnated Defender uses an aluminium monocoque chassis but the Grenadier is strictly traditional in its approach, and more closely related to the current Jeep Wrangler. A beefy box-section ladder frame was developed, with longitudinal members some six inches tall. It’s made from steel and supports beam axles supplied by Italian tractor specialist Carraro. For the suspension, leaf springs and air springs were considered but Eibach steel coils were eventually chosen and are paired with telescopic dampers from ZF and monstrous bump-stops. There is also a sizeable Panhard rod at each end, for reliable lateral location. Inspecting the components of the axles is no hardship because the space between tyre and wheel-arch lining is cavernous. The