Photo: Heritage Customs Vintage
We’re used to seeing custom builds, and most of the time we’re treated with contraptions that aim for perfection. Not the 1985 Land Rover Defender 90 we have here though, which somehow managed to successfully blend carefully crafted custom looks with some of the dents of old.
The SUV is the work of Dutch car design agency (that’s how these guys call themselves) Heritage Customs Vintage. It started life as one of those old Defenders everybody seems to love, and was turned at the request of the customer into a hand-built one-off, like pretty much all other projects of this shop.
Being a Defender, no one wanted to mess with the perfect, general lines of the SUV. The shop focused instead on giving it a modernized and unique appearance, while retaining “some of its battle scars, instead of being over-restored: an ode to the previous life of this car.”
Even with these imperfections (check the gallery for details), the Defender looks incredibly fresh. That’s mostly owed to the matt satin Moon Dust metallic paint that wraps around the thing’s body as if it was specifically created for this model. Depending on the angle and amount of light that hits it, this color changes slightly, making the Defender an unlikely chameleon.
Complementing the Moon Dust look are milled aluminum air vents, grille and headlight surrounds. Speaking of headlights, these are, of course, LEDs, clearing the way for the steel wheels to move the car even in the darkest of environments.
Inside we’re treated with non-automotive black leather and quilted Alcantara, color-matched to the black roof and wheels. In the back, the floor is made of flamed oak instead of the usual teak.
Behind the clean-cut face of the Land Rover sits a V8 powerplant that works together with a manual transmission. The specifics of the powertrain were not provided.
Heritage Customs Vintage also doesn’t say how much this particular build cost to make, but we are informed that, depending on the donor vehicle and the options chosen, that could be around 50,000 euros, or $59,000 at today’s exchange rates.
Being a Defender, no one wanted to mess with the perfect, general lines of the SUV. The shop focused instead on giving it a modernized and unique appearance, while retaining “some of its battle scars, instead of being over-restored: an ode to the previous life of this car.”
Even with these imperfections (check the gallery for details), the Defender looks incredibly fresh. That’s mostly owed to the matt satin Moon Dust metallic paint that wraps around the thing’s body as if it was specifically created for this model. Depending on the angle and amount of light that hits it, this color changes slightly, making the Defender an unlikely chameleon.
Complementing the Moon Dust look are milled aluminum air vents, grille and headlight surrounds. Speaking of headlights, these are, of course, LEDs, clearing the way for the steel wheels to move the car even in the darkest of environments.
Inside we’re treated with non-automotive black leather and quilted Alcantara, color-matched to the black roof and wheels. In the back, the floor is made of flamed oak instead of the usual teak.
Behind the clean-cut face of the Land Rover sits a V8 powerplant that works together with a manual transmission. The specifics of the powertrain were not provided.
Heritage Customs Vintage also doesn’t say how much this particular build cost to make, but we are informed that, depending on the donor vehicle and the options chosen, that could be around 50,000 euros, or $59,000 at today’s exchange rates.
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