Land Rover builds one-off Defender to celebrate 2,000,000 Defender/Series milestone (+video)

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Land Rover has built a special, one-off Defender – which will be auctioned for charity – to celebrate the two millionth Defender / Series Land Rover build.

The real Land Rover Defender may be disappearing off to the annuls of Land Rover history at the end of 2015, but it’s managed to hit a major production milestone before that happens – there have been two million Defenders built since production started 67 years ago.

To be entirely accurate, the two millionth Defender includes all those models built when the Defender was just the Series I, II and III, but it’s a significant milestone, and one worth celebrating.

Built with help from a star cast – including Land Rover Ambassador Bear Grylls, representatives from the International Federation of Red Cross, Born Free and their founder, Virginia McKenna – Land Rover has created their celebration Defender, which will be auctioned by Bonhams in December with all proceeds going to the  International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Born Free Foundation.

The two-millionth Defender gets a map of Red Wharf Bay – where the original design for the Series Land Rover was drawn in the sand by Maurice Wilks – on its front wing, Indus Silver satin paintwork, ‘No: 2,000,000’ badge on the back, Santorini Black alloys, wheel arches, door mirrors and hinges.

Inside, the Defender get leather seats with the Red Wharf Bay graphic, ‘No: 2,000,000’ logos on the headrests and a plaque signed by all the contributors, and LR has also given the Defender ‘S90 HUE’ as its registration number as a nod to the first Series Land Rover, which had the ‘HUE 166’ plate.

Bear Grylls said of the Defender:

The Land Rover Defender has been there for me more times than I care to remember. They are so often the unsung heroes of our TV shows, working hard in the toughest conditions to get crew in and out of exceptionally challenging terrains. Known and respected by me and many other adventurers for their rugged reliability – it was an honour to be asked to take part in the build of this very special car.

The two-millionth Land Rover Defender will revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week, followed by public appearances in the remainder of the year before Bonhams auction it off in December.

Building the Two Millionth Land Rover Defender Video