Spied! 2023 Land Rover Defender stretches its legs

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Proving to be an Englishman with great teeth, the new Land Rover Defender is a lantern-jawed modern take on the historic British off-roader. With two- and four-door models already on sale (called the 90 and 110, respectively), spy photogs across the pond have spotted test mules of the upcoming three-row 130 variant.

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Many moons and cups of tea ago, those numerals used to denote a Defender’s wheelbase. While that measure is long gone, they still refer to a steady increase in vehicle length as the numbers climb. The extended-wheelbase 130 variant is expected to have three rows of seating for up to eight adventurers, meaning owners can take a septet of their closest friends out to the fox hunt.

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Spied! 2023 Land Rover Defender stretches its legs Back to video

While old-school Defender 130 models actually had a longer wheelbase than their shorter 110 brothers, expect this new take on the concept to simply tack on several inches of length aft of the rear wheels to make room for those extra seats. Talking heads are placing the new Defender 130 somewhere in the ballpark of over a foot longer than the 110, making it even more lengthy than the jumbo G-Class over at Mercedes.

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Keen ears suggest this test mule was equipped with Land Rover’s new mild-hybrid 3.0L straight-six engine, a mill which makes 360 horsepower in the smaller Discovery. However, it is reasonable to expect the biggest Defender to also be offered with the tremendous supercharged V8 engine, which is good for 550 horsepower.

A precise launch date for the range-topping Defender has yet to be confirmed, but those in the know expect it to command a decent price premium over the other models and be available only in expensive top-end trims.