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by Rory FH Smith Motoring

OCTA conquers The Cape: Land Rover Defender OCTA

It’s stupid o’clock on Cape Town’s Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, and it sounds like the entire population of South Africa’s songbirds have amassed outside my hotel window. While it’s an early wake-up call by anyone’s measure, it’s necessary considering the enormity of the task that lies before me. Alongside the birds lie a fleet of matching Faroe Green-colored Land Rover Defender OCTAs — the marque’s latest and greatest iteration of the mighty Defender — and I’m responsible for driving one more than 500 miles across some of South Africa’s most challenging terrain and delivering it back in one piece. Simple. While the OCTA’s name doesn’t necessarily scream speed, given its ambition is to be the world’s fastest off-roader, it does hint at the car’s hardiness. The OCTA abbreviation is taken from the octahedral shape of a diamond, which is “the hardest and most desirable mineral on Earth,” as Land Rover reinforces. Packing a BMW-sourced 4.4-litre twin turbo V8, the OCTA has a limited top speed of 155 mph and can hit 60 mph from standing in just 3.8 seconds, which is the same as a Ferrari F50, to put things in perspective. While there are sizeable changes under the hood, thankfully, Land Rover’s engineers have

Town and onto the corrugated dirt tracks that lead through the Cederberg Mountains and up through the red rock of the Matjiesrivier Nature Reserve. The OCTA rides effortlessly over the rough roads, ruts and stray rocks, laying down its power without so much as a twitch. When provoked, however, there’s a reassuring wiggle from the rear on loose gravel surfaces, but it’s nearly impossible to dislodge the OCTA completely. Unlike the boisterous 5.0-liter supercharged V8 engine that went before it, the new BMW-derived unit is much more grown-up in the way it delivers power, despite there being 626 hp onoffer.

paid particular attention to the underpinnings to ensure it puts all that power to good use. Under the subtly revised bodywork sits the OCTA’s secret sauce — its trick 6D Dynamics air suspension system. While the name refers to the six degrees of axis a rigid body can move in a 3D space, it essentially all boils down to a suspension system that can miraculously wipe out any pitch and roll under cornering, accelerating and braking, keeping the OCTA level and, more important, its occupants emotionally stirred but not shaken. It’s something I’m particularly grateful for once we step off the beautifully laid road surface leading out of Cape

Packing a BMW-sourced 4 . 4 -liter twin turbo V 8 , the OCTA has a limited top speed of 155 mph and can hit 6 0 mph fr om standing in just 3 . 8 seconds, which is the same as a Ferrari F 50 , to put things in perspective

Photo Nick Dimbleby