Looking for rubble

The Land Rover Defender Octa promises to be fast, fun and formidable off road, but can another car do it better?

- MATT SAUNDERS

The emergence of the dual-purpose, loose-surface-specialist, off-road performance car is one of the better reasons for enthusiastic drivers like us to be cheerful. From the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato right the way through to the Ford Ranger Raptor and Bowler Bulldog, we've had quite a constant and varied supply of these lovably rogue and madcap mud-pluggers over the past 10 years of car industry history.

And now, if you want to go fast and have fun on gravel and mud as well as on the road in 2025, you can do so in all kinds of different ways. Take, for example, the three fast off-roaders we have gathered at the Sweet Lamb Motorsport Complex in Wales for what should be a fantastic day of testing. They are, respectively, appealingly little, usably mid-sized and unapologetically large. Hobbyist, daily driver and indomitable do-it-all.

We've got rear-engined rear-wheel drive, all-electric four-wheel drive and V8-engined, proper mechanical four-wheel drive on offer, to suit whatever your requirement. These cars are about as different from each other as anything you're likely to see sharing space in an Autocar comparison test. But all should be great fun on what is ostensibly a gravel rally stage that's ours for the day.

At just 715kg, the Ariel Nomad 2 is the kind of flyweight thrill-seeker most would stick on a trailer to transport and use. One towed by something like the 2510kg Land Rover Defender Octa, quite possibly. Could the tow car actually be as much fun as what's towed? Could it get close? Let's see.