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. JLR refused and the result is this, the Ineos Grenadier.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 4×4 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.Range at a glanceModelsPowerFromUtility (2-seat) TD245bhp£64,500Utility (4-seat) T282bhp£65,000Quartermaster TD245bhp£66,215Quartermaster T282bhp£66,215Station Wagon TD245bhp£76,535Station Wagon282bhp£76,535 Transmission8-spd auto The Grenadier comes in a trio of flavours: commercial Utility, a crew- cab pick-up Quartermaster and the five-seat Station Wagon tested here. All are offered with a choice of six- cylinder petrol and diesel motors.In terms of trim levels, Ineos is not currently offering the basic, blank- canvas Station Wagon. Instead, you can have either a Trailmaster (identifiable by its raised air intake and steel wheels) or the Fieldmaster (fancier wheels, safari windows).Ineos currently sells roughly two petrol Grenadiers for every diesel, though a pure-electric version is in the works, says CEO Lynn Calder.
