Fish as well as fowl, Land Rover’s flagship Defender OCTA can summit peaks and outclass supercars around Nürburgring, all in a day’s work. PETER FROST tested its mettle on eight of South Africa’s finest passes.
IT ALL STARTED with the drift video. During the Defender OCTA’s development phase in 2024 a viral moment lit up the internet when the vehicle was filmed executing a perfect four-wheel drift through Swallow’s Tail at the Nürburgring.
Back then all that was known was that the car weighed close to three tons and was, as all Defenders are, all about ride height and clearance. How could a tractor smoke the Ring?
The answer lay in two areas: the inclusion of the uprated BMW V8 4.4L twin turbocharged powerplant and an industry-leading 6D suspension system. Hydraulically interlinked dampers were the secret – they enabled the leviathan to stay flat in brutal cornering.
Add bespoke BF Goodrich boots with reinforced sidewalls, upgraded Brembo brakes, a strengthened chassis, a wider track and a reconfigured cooling system and you had a road warrior that could smoke – literally – the competition on tar as well as dirt. Think Dakar and Silverstone in one afternoon.
OCTA’s success has been evident ever since, sought after by fans of the active weekend as well as by the glitterati. Cue that active weekend for us.
The gorgeous Saragossa Blue behemoth headed through eight passes across the Western Cape, from fast tar to crawling dirt, all the better to viscerally understand its composite abilities.
Eight passes? Puddysticks, given that the province has more than 300 officially recognised passes and poorts to choose from. Our route took us out of Cape Town into the Klein Karoo over Du Toitskloof, Cogmanskloof near Montagu, Op de Tradouw connecting Barrydale, Huisrivier and Naauwkloof outside Calitzdorp, Seweweekspoort through the Swartberg, Rooiberg and then Garcia’s over the Langeberg.
DEFENDER OCTA – 6D DIRT ROAD DYNAMICS
So to the OCTA. Climb aboard and the Edmund Hillary drawing room effect is immediate: bespoke, elegant and beautifully appointed, yet fit for purpose as well – durable, solid, robust.
Fire up the primal V8, listen for the distant growl, pull away and the reserves of torque are abundantly obvious. This is a car that leaps forward at the slightest throttle opening.
We left the traffic chaos of Cape Town and headed up Du Toitskloof Pass rather than through the tunnel. There’s that adaptive suspension working, keeping the car stable. Confidence climbed, as did the corner count. Inevitably an overcooked moment. Physics asserted itself, Newton’s first law demanding respect. But no problem, OCTA counteracted, tightened its line, defied the Englishman. Amazing. Good fun. And only the first pass.
SEWEWEEKSPOORT AND THE OCTA MODE MAGIC
Once beyond the Breede Valley the R62 opens up. The stretch from Montagu to Barrydale is one of the great driving roads of the world: fast, well cambered, undulating, empty. The OCTA channelled its inner supercar, hunkering down in Dynamic Mode, ride height automatically lowering, the throttle sharpening, weight added to the steering, stiffness dialled in to the hydraulic dampers. It’s astonishing how quick, how simple, how intoxicating it is. All too soon Barrydale was behind us and our real goal, Seweweekspoort, was ahead.
Seweweeks is a poort, not a pass, meaning it snakes through the Swartberg, not over it, along the bed of an ancient river. And the approach road to the poort is ideal to test OCTA’s pièce de résistance, the OCTA Mode. Press the diamond-shaped button on the steering wheel and the car configures for fast off-road dirt driving. Defender becomes, in essence, a Dakar trophy truck.
We stopped to test the Off-Road Launch Control, which sent us rocketing towards the poort at warp speed. In OCTA Mode the suspension uncouples the anti-roll bars, allowing for maximum articulation; a good move as it turned out, because we hit a washout and powered through without bottoming out.
Yet despite the uncoupling, the active suspension keeps working to reduce roll and pitch. It all adds up to a spectacularly secure dirt road charge, and it’s not hard to understand how Rokas Baciuška won the Stock Class at Dakar this year in his OCTA.
The poort itself – giant folds of ancient rock twisted by heat and time – dwarfed the OCTA but tested its water wading as we crawled up a side track to hidden Tierkloof Dam. The river from the dam had come up in the good rains and we had to ford it as we headed to the imposing wall. No problem, another feather in its cap: a frankly astonishing 1m wading ability.
Out of Seweweekspoort, back on the tar and heading for the overnight stop at Calitzdorp, we hit Thomas Bain’s splendid Huisrivier Pass, re-engineered in 1966. Again the OCTA’s agility proved itself, the switchbacks at the western end no problem and the sweeping inclines to the east hugely enjoyable under power; verily no replacement for displacement.
CLIMB ABOARD AND THE EDMUND HILLARY DRAWING ROOM EFFECT IS IMMEDIATE: BESPOKE,
ELEGANT AND BEAUTIFULLY APPOINTED, YET FIT FOR PURPOSE AS WELL – DURABLE, SOLID, ROBUST.
BEYOND CALITZDORP, THE ROOIBERG ASCENT
The next morning, beyond Calitzdorp there was one major test left: the ascent of Rooiberg Pass out of town towards the tiny hamlet of Vanwyksdorp. Rooiberg has elements of Swartberg Pass in its hand-built feel and nature. It climbs up the side of the massif in a series of tight, rocky hairpin bends, a one in seven uncambered ascent, best done slowly and with great care. Completed in 1928, it finally linked Vanwyksdorp to the outside world.
For the steepest section we set the OCTA’s Terrain Response to gravel and, predictably, it aced the climb. The pass’s broken surfaces served to underline the importance of a holistic approach to off-road motoring; the 20-inch BF Goodrich Trail Terrain tyres proved an integral part of the overall package.
The journey back to Cape Town felt far easier, probably due to car and driver having established a rapport. Familiarity is a fine thing and gave us the chance to truly enjoy the luxurious interior, as quiet as a limousine and just as spacious.
As the coastal belt appeared, along with its complex traffic issues, a final thought: few cars in the world can fulfil as many functions as the OCTA – town, country, boulevard or bushveld.
It’s an SUV for the few, a performance car and off-road specialist wrapped in a bespoke suit, a distilled experience of serenity, ability and rarity. Masterful.
Click here for more information on the Defender OCTA.