The Land Rover Defender 110 can now be had with Ballistic Anti-Kidnap protection thanks to a tie-up between Land Rover and German Specialists Trasco.
But the new Defender is a different beast – although Land Rover thinks it’s still a proper workhorse, assuming you can afford one – with luxury interiors and masses of tech, and it’s now bought by buyers wanting a status symbol rather than a workhorse.
That change in buyer profile now means many who drive, or are driven in, the new Defender are high-profile individuals with security concerns (or nefarious individuals with enemies aplenty) looking for more options to keep them safe than just being able to plough an off-road furrow with alacrity to escape from danger.
So Land Rover has teamed up with German specialist Trasco to deliver an armoured Defender as an option on the Defender 110, although it’s not done by Land Rover but by Trasco in Germany.
Trasco calls its protection system A-Kip – which stands for Anti-Kidnap – and it comes with a mixture of security-grade steel, glass and composite materials and includes protection for the rear with a new partition separating the boot from the back seats.
The conversion, which is all but invisible from the outside, comes in two flavours, with VPAM 4 offering protection from a .44 Magnum fired from five metres and VPAM 6 offering protection from an AK-47. Well, limited protection.
Additional add-ons to the regular package include a self-sealing fuel tank, run-flat tyres, a fire suppression system and underbody protection.
No word on price (it won’t be cheap) or on how much weight the protection adds to the far from lightweight Defender.
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