As a species, we’re suckers for nostalgia. New music is constantly competing with old music, and we never quite got over an idealized version of the 1980s. At some point, you have to wonder, why fight it? Sometimes you just need to lean into it because even though it’s predictable, the results can still be lovely. In that spirit, the Land Rover Defender 110 Trophy Edition doesn’t just honor an iconic part of Land Rover history; it brings back one of the best colors to ever grace a 4X4.
Between 1980 and 2000, Camel sponsored an off-road event called the Camel Trophy, a competition through some of the harshest and most beautiful terrain on the planet. While competitors in the inaugural event used Jeeps, organizers needed vehicle support fast, and Land Rover came through. What came next was 20 years of iconic photographs, with Sandglow yellow Land Rovers doing exactly what they were intended to do—rove the land.
Of course, Land Rover didn’t miss the opportunity to capitalize on such publicity, selling a handful of customer vehicles in the iconic color scheme. Once things wound down, Land Rover decided to take on the spirit of the event with the G4 Challenge and, later, the Defender Challenge, but nothing beats that iconic original look.
With the Defender already being a modern yet vaguely nostalgic SUV, it’s only natural that it pulls off the look with ease. We’re talking proper all-terrain tires, and of course, Deep Sandglow Yellow paint. Obviously, there aren’t any Camel stickers here as advertising tobacco is generally frowned upon in most parts of the world, and I can only imagine what the licensing fee would be, but they haven’t been replaced with some over-the-top, largely meaningless livery. Instead, you get subtle branding of the actual Trophy competition Land Rover runs, a bit of real adventure pedigree done quite tastefully.
Admittedly, it would’ve been easy for the Defender 110 Trophy Edition’s makers to go a bit too far, but they haven’t. There are no flash five-spoke alloys here; instead, we find the steel-wheel-aping aluminum rollers just about everyone loves. Naturally, they’re painted black to match the grille and the stripe, along with matching black sills and valences. You can option a snorkel, a serious roof rack, and an available little ladder if you really want to complete the look, but everything available here is still on-theme.
If you don’t like Deep Sandglow Yellow, you can also spec this limited-run model in Keswick Green. Either way, the dashboard facing is matched to the exterior color, a nice touch to brighten up the cabin, given the use of stain-hiding dark upholsteries.
While it would be really cool if the Trophy Edition was offered on the short-wheelbase Defender 90 model, the extra space of the 110 is more marketable and arguably better suited to adventuring. Yes, you compromise on breakover angle with the longer wheelbase, but you gain accommodation for gear, or even a place to sleep out of the rain if the going gets really tough.
That being said, the Land Rover Defender 110 Trophy Edition is still a luxury SUV, so there’s a chance most owners won’t actually take it off-road – and that’s okay. The overall look is so cool, trying to keep these trucks nice is a sin that’ll be forgiven. Is it weird to predict that these things will bring in strong money at collector auctions in a decade or two?
Top graphic image: Land Rover
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A neighbor of mine bought one of these new/this gen of Defender in that nice, gentle non-metallic medium blue they have when they first came out, and I walk past it most days with my dog. The boxy, rugged-looking form, and that color, with those odd little clusters of small square tail lights all work to make a very appealing impression. I’d probably never be in the market for such a vehicle myself, unless I moved someplace with unpaved roads that got actual, serious weather, but I certainly like them.
This new edition looks pretty great in either the Deep Sandglow yellow or Keswick green, but most any boxy, utilitarian-looking vehicle benefits from chonky steel wheels and all-terrain tires (if I ever rationalize spending $2,500.+ to put a 2″ lift kit and wheel spacers on my Volvo 240 wagon, I’ll have to allocate another $1,500. for steelies and beefy-looking but still streetable tires… but that’s $4K, which is almost as much as the whole car cost me, so…). I assume both the yellow and green from Land Rover are metallics, but it’s a bit hard to tell from the photos. Hopefully, they at least have fine sparkles instead of the tawdry looking big flakes in metallic paints used on many domestic and some foreign-made cars. The total absence of exterior chrome is a plus for this sort of vehicle too, even if the whole thing smacks a bit of adventure cosplay, considering that 99% of these (and similar) vehicles never have to navigate anything more challenging than a Costco parking lot. 😉
I’m not much of a fan of those high-mounted side storage boxes, which must obscure over-the-shoulder visibility (I assume it has cameras to compensate) but I really like the sturdy looking roof rack that runs the full length of the roof, and though the little ladder seems a bit silly to some, if I used the roof rack often (to move 4’x8′ sheets of building material for example) I’d definitely like having the ladder, even if it also obscures some rear visibility (better to have the ladder on the driver’s side, as in the above pix).
Also, major kudos to Land Rover also for offering these in the “S” trim as two-doors, which isn’t super common lately, an exception being the base Ford Bronco. I know four-doors are more common in most vehicle types, but some folks (like me) rarely ever need/use the back set of doors and most vehicles just look better w/fewer cutlines in the body.
I like it, and that muted yellow color is lovely. 🙂
I still smile every time I see one of these in the wild. They’re really attractive cars that stir the imagination. I could hypothetically afford a super basic new one or a used one if I really wanted to…but the JLR ownership experience just does not seem like a good time to me, especially when I can get a Japanese off-roader for less money that’ll be more reliable, easier to maintain, and hold its value better.
I also don’t think there’s a good answer when it comes to the powertrain in these unless you can spring for one of the V8s. I can’t imagine that a 2 liter turbo 4 in something this heavy is going to last very long, and the straight 6 that’s turbocharged, electric supercharged, and very British is a time bomb. JLR has a deal with BMW for the N63 V8s, so I’m not sure why they can’t find a way to put B58s in these.
To this day, every time I see a Defender in the wild, I instinctively think it’s always someone on a test drive. Especially the white ones. That blank C-pillar rectangle just looks like a Monroney sticker.
And the version with disconnectable transaxles and a dampened towbar on the front is aimed specifically at the motor home crowd. They call that trimline The Camel-Toad.
See, it’s like a blend of two awesome animals. Everyone passing you on the interstate will slow down and stare because they can’t look away.
Glad they didn’t Porsche it in a cringey way, like the Rothmanns cigarettes to “Roughroads” 😀
All that extra plastic on the sides is going to brake off out in the real jungle, but will probably hold up just fine for school runs for millionaires…
But alu wheels painted to look like steel wheels are on my personal “seriously uncool wall” (yes I also watched TG…), why not go the Toyota way with the real thing?
I have a Matchbox rally livery 911 that managed to do it better (nicely morphed Rothmans into Matchbox) than Porsche actually did.
Given that Toyota Camry press cars have been in a yellow, and I recall Prosche recently offering some kind of canary yellow, blue-ish gray on gray might finally be out of style!
Feels like it’s been a decade worth of bluish gray colors.
I love my defender as much as the majority of people love to hate on the brand.
I think it may be accentuated by the yellow with the black stripe all the way down the front, but I have never before noticed how absolutely ridiculous and stupid those DRLs look. “Hello, I’m a person with money, driving a cartoon.”
It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not quite YELLOW enough. My brain may be getting hard but I seem to remember the actual trophy vehicles being a lot brighter (before they were covered in mud).
But the interwebs seem to show them more muted, but not as much so as the above shots.
I think this is metallic, which explains why it looks wrong.
my cousins had a bright school bus yellow one, OEM paint colored one late 90’s early 2000’s. When they sold it, they got more than they paid and that was after years of use.
Same here! Though I think what I may actually be remembering is the background of the event logo decals?
This is not a defender it doesn’t look like one or drive like one a defender was a rugged all wheel drive vehicle made for going through jungles and desserts and any landscape you could come up with this is a foo foo car
Your comment is so rugged and edgy, all your punctuation was afraid to come too!
Dare I say, for the old ones going through dessert was a piece of cake!
Looks cooler than anything, but it is a Defender and from LRJ so lease it only.
I daily-drive a 2006 LR3, and while I love it I swore I’d never own another Land Rover. And then this blasted thing comes along…
I know they used Defenderes in the early years but in my brain the Camel Trophy Rovers always appear as Discoveries.
It’s fine, these things are far more Discovery than Defender anyway. Sad.
Based on a quick search it seems the discovery was the choice through the 90s. Outside of the body shape and interior was there significant differences between the defender and discovery in that era?
Defender was the same as it ever was, just with some fancier gizmos inside than the earlier ones.
Same, I also remember yellow Discovery Channel adventure race-themed Discos, as well, but that might be the Mandela Effect just because it was called the Discovery.
I enjoy remembering and speculating more than Google, it just saps the fun out of life.
Would love to see a side by side run against an old one to see if new technology is better off road than the original solid axle ones.
I am guessing that an old Land Rover would be slower, but a well equipped series III is probably the the winner. If you are going to drive across the Darien gap you might try an old range rover;
https://www.roverparts.com/roverlog-news-blog/1972-range-rover-darien-gap-expedition/?srsltid=AfmBOorpp4aDgBQxr2SrMIwPo3l0Q3ob9o_yCaBJ_IUdyXp3DVlpw1rL
Minimum 20 inch wheels for pinching sidewalls, causing flats on the trail?
Ingenium engines with unreliable timing chains (amongst other things) covered by a million plastic tubes?
Good thing they painted it yellow, so the tow truck can spot it easily.
I am a LR fan (and owner of LR products on/off for decades), and I do like the overall styling they are doing, but dammit I wish they would stop moving away from what the brand should be.
https://www.roverparts.com/roverlog-news-blog/1972-range-rover-darien-gap-expedition/?srsltid=AfmBOorpp4aDgBQxr2SrMIwPo3l0Q3ob9o_yCaBJ_IUdyXp3DVlpw1rL
“Good thing they painted it yellow, so the tow truck can spot it easily.” Gold. Pure gold!
Thanks! I tried my most medium.
The brand is all about entitled folk driving to Whole Foods. Seems exactly on brand with what they’re doing.
Sounds like JLR is going down the path to extend the life of this model by another few years by starting to offer some trim packages. Expect more of these to come.