The Defender Rally motorsport team has accelerated preparations for its debut entry to the 2026 Dakar Rally and FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) after completing a gruelling test of the Defender Dakar D7X-R in Morocco, Africa.
Attending the milestone test was new Team Principal of Defender Rally, Ian James – also recently announced as Managing Director, JLR Motorsport. Ian will lead the Defender Rally team into Dakar and the W2RC. He was previously Managing Director of McLaren Electric Racing.  
Defender will make its team debut at the 2026 Dakar Rally, where three Defender Dakar D7X-Rs will compete in the new ‘Stock’ category for production-based cars. A two-car Defender entry will then contest the remaining four rounds of the 2026 W2RC.
The competition-spec Defender Dakar D7X-R is now taking centre stage. It shares the same robust aluminium body architecture, transmission and driveline layout as the production Defender OCTA, along with its 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 engine. The D7X-R’s bodyshell is assembled on the production line at Defender’s state‑of‑the‑art Nitra Manufacturing Centre in Slovakia, before a bespoke final build to ‘Stock’ rally-raid specification was completed by the Defender Rally team in the UK.
The first competition spec D7X-R was put through its paces most recently in Erfoud, Morocco, where the team carried out the most significant test to date in their preparation programme. The aim of the Saharan desert test was to accumulate mileage on the D7X-R, covering similar stage distances to those expected at the upcoming 2026 Dakar Rally, the hero event of the W2RC. The test began with shorter loops over smaller dunes, before building up to routes covering hundreds of kilometres spanning wadis and rugged plains, bumps and rocks, and faster sand tracks - mirroring the terrain expected at Dakar.  
Putting the D7X-R to the test was Defender’s world-class line-up of drivers – Stéphane Peterhansel, Sara Price and Rokas Baciuška – simulating the challenges they’ll face on the Dakar. This included their co-drivers using the digital navigation ‘roadbooks’ which, on the Dakar, will have each day’s route available to view just minutes before a timed stage begins.