Work horse

LAND ROVER DEFENDER 90 D200 HARD TOP

The ‘Hard Top’ name dates back to 1950, when Land Rover began offering a removable hard top for the erstwhile soft top Series 1. Nowadays it’s Solihull-speak for a ‘new’ Defender – TopGear’s reigning Car of the Year – with a load of nothingness where the rear seats ought to be.

Available in both short-wheelbase 90 and long-wheelbase 110 form, this is 2021’s Defender at its most utilitarian. A vehicle for transporting heavy, bulky, important cargo.

Sat in the driver’s seat there’s no way of knowing you’re driving a Defender Hard Top versus a normal five- or seven-seat Defender. At least until you turn your head to look out the non-existent left-rear window at an oblique junction or try to check your blind spots before changing lanes on the motorway. Ah.

A sturdy full height partition (with a little grate so you can still see out the back window) separates driver and payload and means heavy objects won’t nut you in the back of the head in a crash. The 90 has 1,355 litres of space back there and can carry up to 670kg, while the 110 has over 2,000 litres of space in its much longer, slightly wider cargo bay and can transport up to 800kg of whatever you fancy.

Both get a totally flat floor with space underneath for an assortment of clever, lockable storage bins, up to six integrated lashing points for tying your precious cargo down, heavy duty hose-down rubber mats and über-bright interior lights. Usefully the 110 keeps its blacked-out rear doors for side access.

There are no mechanical changes – the Hard Top uses the same excellent mild-hybrid six-cylinder diesels in 197, 247 or 296bhp flavours, the same eight-speed automatic gearbox and the same suspension as the SUV, so it’s just as accomplished on- and off-road.

The 90 starts from £36,896 and the 110 from £43,771, both before VAT. Add the VAT back in and they cost the roughly the same as a normal Defender. So this is hardly the cheapest way of moving things around, but not all businesses work solely on spreadsheets.

Sure, some businesses will actually use these things as Land Rover intended – think construction, infrastructure and telecoms companies. Others? Look at it this way... A new Transit would make a more practical food truck than an old Citroen H Van for all kinds of reasons, but that doesn’t stop businesses from buying, restoring and fitting out the old French workhorses with coffee machines, pizza ovens and God knows what else. Why? They’re cool. And so’s the Defender Hard Top.