Bowler Defender

Exactly how much fun can you have in a 296bhp Land Rover? If it's been fettled by Bowler, rather a lot

- ADAM TOWLER

OH NO. YOU'VE REALLY GONE AND DONE Oit it now, Towler. I'm not sure if I said that out loud or if the words are just echoing in my head, but whatever, there's no way the nose of this new Defender is going to survive what I'm bracing for. I've locked up and a three-foot-deep gulley is approaching... downhill, at about 40mph.

There'll be a loud crunch, I'll pull over, tentatively creep around to the front of the car, pull a pained expression at the jagged metal and plastic, then have the inglorious limp back to Bowler's field set-up, or 'bivouac' as they call it, where I'll have to slope off and hide behind the portable toilet in disgrace.

Instead, the Defender drops down into the hole, springs unfathomably up the other side with the front wheels clear of the ground, then does it again over two more such obstacles that really exercise my HANS straps, before dispatching jagged rocks twice the size of my head with barely a thump. In that very moment not only is my admiration for the Bowler Defender sealed, but I also realise I've got a lot to learn about this hill rallying thing....

The words 'rallying' and 'Defender' might not be the most natural of pairings, but add in 'Bowler' and it starts to make a lot more sense. You might recall the Bowler Defender Challenge Rally Series for original Defenders that ran between 2014 and 2016, and you are probably aware of some of the company's wilder Land Rover-based creations that have stormed wooded hillsides and jumped dunes on the Dakar. You may also know that this Derbyshire firm-established in 1985 by Drew Bowler, who passed away in 2016 - was acquired by Jaguar Land Rover in 2019 and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the group.