By Land Rover is developing the most powerful version of the Defender which will be christened SVX and it has been spotted testing at the Nurburgring test track. The winding high-speed test track is the ideal place to test the performance vehicle as it is not the first time we are seeing the SVX putting through its paces. The Defender SVX prototype is heavily camouflaged to hide the design changes ahead of the debut as the overall theme is similar to the regular model.
The changes include new sporty bumpers at the front and rear while the wheel arches are slightly larger than the standard version which could suggest that the wheel could be slightly bigger. But the big update is under the hood as the SVX model will be powered by new 4.4 L Twin-Turbo V8 engine sourced from BMW as this engine already does duty on many Land Rover models. The British manufacturer replaced its 5.0 L V8 engine with the 4.4 L unit as it produces more power and torque.
This engine produces 617 hp of power and 750 Nm of torque on BMW X5 MCompetition but we are not sure whether the SVX will come with this same configuration. The transmission option could be an 8-speed automatic gearbox from ZF Which does duty on the BMW. Land Rover already have a V8 Engine option for Defender in the US but the SVX will offer more performance as 0-100 kph could be around one sec quicker than the US model. The official debut is expected by the end of this year.
