What's the news?
Going to town once more on an off-roader, the Chelsea Truck Company (CTC) - a subsidiary of Yorkshire-based Kahn Design - has revealed what it says is 'probably the fastest Land Rover Defender in the world', the 502hp behemoth called the Chelsea Longnose. Any guesses as to where the name came from?
Exterior
All right, so you've spotted the extra metal in the Defender's front three-quarter area. This is to house the massive engine, which we'll come to in a minute. The car as a whole has a fairly rugged appearance, with a new front bumper with integral LED lamps, a sump guard and vented tailpipe-exit mud flaps. There are either 16- or 18-inch wheels, as well as the option of huge 20-inch items. Further accoutrements are 'Chelsea' wide arches, crosshair headlamps and the X-Lander grille, plus the possibility of privacy glass.
Interior
It's a bespoke interior with hand-trimmed racing seats accompanied by a sport steering wheel, drilled pedals and custom instrument dials. You can add in satnav, tweed trim detailing and a choice of luxury floor and headlining materials to make the Longnose completely unique within.
Mechanicals
The details here are a little bit sketchy, but the engine is said to be a '502hp V8 powerhouse' driving through a six-speed 'electronic' gearbox. We're not sure where this engine is from; Cosworth once worked on the 5.0-litre Land Rover supercharged V8 for the Kahn Range Rover RS600 Cosworth, so it could be a derivation of that unit. And as for the gearbox, we're guessing it's an automatic. Kahn has also revealed it has uprated the differentials, plus it has added a race-derived braking system to ensure proper stopping power.
There will be just 49 of these Chelsea Longnoses, all built by Kahn's coach-building division. The model in the pics is obviously based on the 90 version (although that figure means little given the extra length in the wheelbase), but a 110-derived variant is not out of the question. You'll pay £89,950 for it, though, which puts it firmly in Range Rover territory. It's a bit more individual than an SDV6 Sport, however.
Anything else?
Given the name of the company that created this machine, you might believe it's the sort of car for people who know nothing about motorsport - 'Chelsea tractors' was always a bit of a derogatory term for town-bound SUVs. But the CTC and Kahn Design say the Longnose uses 'Paris-Dakar race-bred performance technology'. And who are we to argue? Albeit the Dakar is now run in South America... but we digress. Find out more about the company at www.kahndesign.com.
Matt Robinson - 24 Feb 2014