TRACK TESTED: 2021 Land Rover Defender 90 P400 Gets Taken Out of Its Element

Putting the spurs to the two-door Defender with the 395-hp inline-6

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  • The reinvented four-door Land Rover Defender 110 now has a two-door sibling called the Defender 90.
  • How did the 395-hp P400 engine handle 5,207 pounds of Defender 90 at our test track? Quite well, thank you.

The off-road-ready Land Rover Defender returned to America in 2020 for the first time in more than two decades. For 2021, the four-door 110 model was joined by the two-door Defender 90. The latter's shorter length might hurt utility and interior space, but it also makes the 90 slightly more nimble and capable off-road. We recently tested the Defender 90 in P400 spec, which uses an inline-six gasoline engine that's both turbocharged and supercharged.

While the Defender and its rivals are of course highly capable off-road, the truth is most of their lives will be spent driving on city streets, where passing power is more important than breakover angles or selectable low-range gearing. That's especially relevant to a luxury automaker like Land Rover, as expectations rise along with the price tag.

So how did the Defender 90 P400 fare in the unnatural habitat of our test track? Let's run the numbers.

How does the Defender 90 perform?

In P400 trim, the 2021 Land Rover Defender 90 is equipped with a turbocharged and supercharged 3.0-liter inline-six engine making 395 horsepower and 406 lb-ft of torque. That's considerably more power than the Ford Bronco V6 (330 hp) and the Jeep Wrangler V6 (285 hp). All Defenders come standard with an eight-speed automatic transmission, full-time four-wheel drive and selectable low-range gearing. Notably, we've yet to test the V8-powered P525 variant, which is new for the 2022 Defender lineup.

At Edmunds' test track, our 2021 Defender 90 P400 went from zero to 60 in just 6.2 seconds, making it one of the quickest off-roaders we've ever tested and putting it a half-second clear of both its four-door sibling and the two-door Ford Bronco V6. It's also a healthy 1.1 seconds clear of the V6-powered Jeep Wrangler. (The V8-powered Wrangler 392 is in a different league at 4.7 seconds to 60, while the 375-hp Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid still trails the Defender 90 P400 by 0.8 second.)

The Defender's extra power clearly helps make up for its significant weight penalty. Take a look at the table below to see just how hefty the Land Rovers are compared to the Ford and Jeep. Similarly, the Defender's brakes perform well given the mass they're tasked with slowing. The Defender 90 P400 stops from 60 mph in 133 feet, right on par with its rivals.

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Test Car
Test
Date
Weight
Acceleration
0-60
Acceleration
1/4-Mile
Braking distance 60-0
2021 Land Rover Defender 90 P4009/20/215,207 lbs6.2 sec14.8 sec @ 95.7 mph134 ft
2020 Land Rover Defender 110 SE9/14/205,571 lbs6.7 sec14.9 sec @ 91.7 mph133 ft
2021 Ford Bronco 2-Door V69/20/214,654 lbs6.7 sec15.2 sec @ 90.6 mph135 ft
2018 Jeep Wrangler JL V66/4/184,038 lbs7.3 sec15.3 sec @ 88.3 mph133 ft
2021 Land Rover Defender

2021 Land Rover Defender

But look at that price!

While we tested a 2021 Defender, Land Rover already has 2022 models on sale as of this writing. For 2022, the base four-cylinder P300 Defender 90 starts at $49,050 including destination, and the four-door Defender 110 starts at $51,850 with the same engine. That's a lot more than the Bronco and Wrangler, both of which can be had for around $30,000, although you've no doubt heard that Broncos are particularly hard to come by at the moment. If you want the new V8-powered Defender, prices start at $98,550 for the 90 and $101,750 for the 110, again much more than the $75,990 Jeep Wrangler 392.

The Defender's price might be a hard pill to swallow, though the Ford and Jeep can't match the Land Rover when it comes to overall refinement, comfort or premium appointments. Short of a Mercedes-Benz G-Class, there really isn't anything that matches the Defender's blend of on-road comfort and off-road capability. Spend some time behind the wheel of the Defender and you'll see where the extra money has gone.

Edmunds says

As you'd expect, the Defender 90 doesn't nearly feel as at home on the track as it does on a trail, but it drives and handles well enough for day-to-day driving, especially with the P400 powertrain in place.

Reese Countsby

Reese Counts has worked in the automotive industry since he started as an intern at Edmunds in 2015. He has written or edited thousands of car-related articles and tested and reviewed hundreds of vehicles over the course of his career. Reese is a vehicle test editor at Edmunds and has also contributed to Autoblog. Reese has also been featured on Yahoo! Finance, Engadget and AOL reviewing cars and covering automotive technology, auto shows and more. Reese learned to drive in his father's C4 Chevrolet Corvette and now owns his grandfather's 1999 Mercedes-Benz C43 AMG. A love for cars runs deep in his family.

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