There’s an old saying that goes something like “never meet your heroes…” Well, if you’re a regular reader of Unfinished Man, you’ll know I absolutely love the Land Rover Defender and have always wanted to own one. That is until I test drove one a couple of weeks ago. I was very disappointed. I know the Defender is no luxury vehicle and is not very powerful, but I wasn’t ready to experience driving a tractor.
But then again, I didn’t take it off-road and that’s what these vehicles shine. I still like the Defender, as long as someone else owns it. The current Defender is also going out of production soon and it’s not nice to talk bad about the dead or dying.
To pay tribute to the outgoing Defender, British fashion designer Paul Smith got together with Land Rover to create this one-off Defender. Smith has owned quite a few Defenders over the years and this vehicle is going into his garage. His “design” of the Defender includes painting it in 27 different colors, making something like an art car. The interior has also been customized with lots of color and black leather with black stitches.
This Defender is a one-off, and thank God for that! The Paul Smith Defender reminds me of old cars in third world countries with lots of rust and miss-matching paint of various panels because the doors, hood, trunk, etc, have all been salvaged from other vehicles with different paint jobs.
I don’t know much about fashion or Paul Smith… maybe I’m missing the point here, or maybe this Defender is meant to look like a hodgepodge of different parts? But in my personal opinion, this isn’t a tribute, it’s more like the Defender is looking into its grave and this is a final kick in the ass as we say goodbye to the Defender.
I actually like it