{"id":1087,"date":"2025-05-29T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2025-05-30T15:02:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T15:02:37","slug":"the-2026-land-rover-defender-keeps-the-supercharged-v-8-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/29\/the-2026-land-rover-defender-keeps-the-supercharged-v-8-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2026 Land Rover Defender Keeps the Supercharged V-8 Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Land Rover gave the Defender<\/a> an extremely subtle facelift for the 2026 model year, but what’s most interesting about this updated 4×4 is what isn’t<\/em> new: Its supercharged 5.0-liter V-8. Yes, the Defender V8 gets a stay of execution, living alongside the new, twin-turbo V-8 Defender Octa<\/a>\u00a0for the immediate future. Land Rover hasn’t confirmed US specs for the 2026 Defender yet, so we’ve reached out to see if we’ll get the 5.0-liter here, and we’ll update if and when we hear back.<\/p>\n

This supercharged V-8 is one of the oldest engines on the market. Jaguar developed this, the AJ-V8, in the mid-1990s under Ford ownership. The 5.0-liter version debuted in 2009, and for a while, it was available in many models across the Jaguar Land Rover lineup. But with Jaguar soon ending gas-car production entirely<\/a>\u2014the F-Pace is still soldiering on for a bit\u2014and Range Rover models all switching to a BMW-sourced 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8, the Defender is very likely the last car to get this supercharged engine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Land
\nPhoto by: Land Rover<\/p>\n

The changes for the 2026 Defender are very minor otherwise. Exterior changes are a new headlight design, standard fog lights, smoked taillights, revised trim pieces, plus new colors and wheel designs. Inside, things are mostly the same, except for a 13.1-inch infotainment display in place of the old 11.4-inch unit.<\/p>\n

The Defender gains the option of Land Rover’s Adaptive Off-Road Cruise Control system, which automatically adjusts speed depending on obstacles. This, Land Rover says, contributes to “unruffled” off-road driving. How very English. And with the three-row Defender 130, Land Rover offers an in-built air-compressor for airing up your tires after off-roading.<\/p>\n

In Europe, the 2026 Defender is already on sale, but presumably, we’ll have to wait a bit longer to get it in the US. And while our emissions regulations are more lax than those elsewhere, we can’t imagine the supercharged V-8 is long for this world. Get one while you still can.<\/p>\n

More on Land Rover<\/h2>\n

Jaguar Be Damned: JLR Just Had its Best Profit in a Decade<\/a>
The Range Rover SV Sport Hauls Ass Handsomely: First Drive Review<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Land Rover gave the Defender an extremely subtle facelift for the 2026 model year, but what’s most interesting about this updated 4×4 is what isn’t new: Its supercharged 5.0-liter V-8. Yes, the Defender V8 gets a stay of execution, living alongside the new, twin-turbo V-8 Defender Octa\u00a0for the immediate future. Land Rover hasn’t confirmed US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-coverage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1162,"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions\/1162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasethefootprint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}