For the first time, the toughest offroad endurance race in the world has had an official factory team from Jaguar Land Rover.

The three-vehicle team, driving toughened Defender V8s, won the stock class on debut.

JLR's new Defender rally team's Dakar assault is the beginning of a three-year commitment to the full World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), which includes four other events.

The Dakar Rally is run entirely within Saudi Arabia. The vast desert landscape hosts almost 8,000 competitive kilometres of Dakar racing. The event started and finished near the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, passing near the capital of Riyadh en route. While the Dakar is a hugely competitive event at the sharp end, for the bulk of the 600-plus competitors (split among cars, bikes, buggies, trucks and a fast-growing class of classics), it's really about a sense of adventure.

While Land Rovers have contested Dakar for decades, the three Defender D7X-Rs that tackled this year's event were the first fully works-run machines in the near-50-year history of the event.

JLR's initial three-year commitment to the Dakar includes becoming an event partner as well as contesting the W2RC. The team is firmly focused on the revamped production-based Stock division and says it will not join Toyota,, Ford and Dacia in the top T1+ class, which is dominated by bespoke, spaceframe racers.

They run in the T2 class, which allows for different vehicle designs. The T2 Hilux pick-ups that have dominated the class for the past few years have featured body-on-frame construction, whereas the Defender has an aluminium monocoque body. Part of the appeal was for JLR to prove that a monocoque 4x4 could handle hardcore off-roading as well as a traditional ladder-framed one.

The Dakar Defender D7X-R bodyshells are built on the standard road car production line in Nitra, Slovakia. Employees built the Dakar bodies on weekends so certain robots could be turned off to delete parts used on the road versions that are not needed on the race vehicles. The body's stampings, pressings, everything that went into this car is exactly the same as a Defender 110. They are then event-prepped by rally constructor Prodrive, which builds and runs the cars.

The base vehicle is the Defender Octa, with a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 driving through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Power is restricted because of the rules governing power - the Dakar vehicles produce 290kW, compared with 466kW in the roadgoing Octa. Gearing is lower to cope with low grip in the long sand sections of the course.

The suspension must retain the "kinematic principles" of the original vehicle, and features twin Bilstein dampers on each rear wheel. There are 35" BF Goodrich tyres and the track has been widened: the D7X-R has a front track of 1832mm, which is 60mm wider than the Octa, which in turn is 68mm wider than a standard Defender 110. The suspension and subframe mounting points remain standard with an exoskeleton for extra strength.

The drivetrain has a central transfer case, which controls the four-wheel-drive system. The electronic differentials have been switched for mechanical limited-slip diffs. The software controlling the drivetrain creates a pure 4WD system and limits torque to the front axles. It also features "flight mode", which automatically adjusts torque to the wheels when the car is airborne to ensure a smooth landing that protects the drivetrain.