Last year, Land Rover announced plans to commemorate the end of the Defender’s long production run with three Final Edition models called Autobiography, Heritage, and Adventure, respectively. German tuner Startech also wants to pay homage to the Defender, and it has introduced a special edition model that’s billed as a final farewell to the iconic off-roader.
The custom Defender is called Sixty8, a number chosen because the very first Land Rover Series was introduced 68 years ago. It gets Startech’s 3.1 vintage design appearance package, which adds a new grille whose design is inspired by the one found on the Series 3 that was built from 1974 to 1983. The Sixty8 also gets a beefy skid plate up front, a two-tone black and gray paint job, 18-inch alloy wheels that look like period-correct steel wheels, and model-specific emblems all around.
Startech has done its best to mask the Defender’s purely utilitarian roots by sprucing up the cockpit with quilted leather upholstery on the seats and on the door panels, Alcantara on the headliner, sport seats, a new three-spoke steering wheel, and metal pedal caps. An Alpine infotainment system brings the Defender into the modern era with 3D navigation, a DVD player, a rear-view camera, Bluetooth connectivity, and an SD card slot.
The modifications don’t extend to the engine bay, meaning the Sixty8 is powered by a stock Defender-sourced 2.2-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel engine that makes 120 horsepower and a generous 360 foot-pounds of torque. The oil-burner spins all four wheels via a six-speed manual transmission and a permanent all-wheel drive system.
And as its name further implies, production of the Sixty8 will be limited to just 68 examples. On sale now worldwide, Startech’s homage to the Land Rover Defender carries a base price of €67,990 (about $75,000), while opting for the seven-seater model bumps the price tag up to €69,000 (roughly $76,300).
