Land Rover Defender Pick-up Tophat

A Tophat speaks louder than words.

The Land Rover Defender. A car that was synonymous with snorkels, bull bars, winches, trenches and the savannah in Africa. These days, the average Dutch Defender has it a little easier. The steepest slope is the bridge of the Prinsengracht and off-roading through the sandy path to horseback riding lessons is also quite something, Baudouin! But oh well, the Defender is and remains, practical considerations aside, an icon!

The four- or five-burner self-igniters lend themselves well to crawling through mud and delivering lots of power at low revs. The downside is that reaching 100 km/h is not as smooth as the average beard growth and they had the handling of a teenager walking out of the pub for the first time after the Corona crisis. Tophat made the Defender icon the "AMG-tjes and SVR'ren" laugh with a toothache. How? An LS3, hot-cammed, mated to a Tremec 6-speed transmission, breathable through a custom side pipe system with valve, of course. Needed? Nope. Fun? Gadverdamme how good!

And well you can pretty much cross your fingers at Designo of the G these days, but nothing can match the Top(hat). Carbon widebody fenders, Detroit custom wheels (1 off), fully custom suspension, aircraft fuses on the dash with Singer's aero clocks ánd a fully -handmade- aluminum dashboard. The shelves in the back? Made from over 100-year-old wood from a Wine Chateau, of course. That does make that straight-piped V8 a bit chic towards the in-laws! By the way, it fits a Christmas tree in the back just fine, so it can go under the tree for Dad himself. Will we see you soon?