Himalaya launches its own anniversary-themed Defender

A couple years ago, Jaguar Land Rover celebrated 70 years of its Defender range by releasing 150 performance-boosted Defenders in Great Britain. With those sold out and some customers left wanting, tuner shop Himalaya decided to launch a series of its own.

The name of the project, ‘70th Clone’, instantly betrays the idea behind it. The company takes an old Defender as the donor vehicle, restores it from the ground up, paints red with black accents, and fits with a removable soft top.

The cabin receives a full makeover in black and white leather, with additions including a Momo steering wheel, Recaro seats, and aluminum door handles and pedals. Another highlight comes in the shape of a multimedia system that supports Apple CarPlay and Bluetooth and even has an HDMI port.

Rounding things off is an engine swap. Himalaya goes for the popular GM LS3 V8 here, boosting it to 525 horsepower (391 kilowatts) and mating it with a six-speed, sports-grade automatic transmission.

We like the result quite a bit. And what do you think?