If there’s an official Bond movie villain vehicle, it’s without doubt Land Rover’s go-anywhere Defender. 

Starring in those beloved 007 romps No Time to Die and Spectre, a seemingly never-ending fleet of these stealthy, all-black 4x4s slammed over boulders, bounced off trees and generally got demolished in their dogged pursuit of Craig, Daniel Craig.

So connected is the Defender with the 007 franchise that back in 2021, to celebrate the 25th Bond movie release, Land Rover offered-up a Defender V8 Bond Edition to coincide with the premiere of No Time to Die. 

Any color you wanted so long as it was black. They built just 300, with pricing from $116,000. 

Had the next Bond movie been about to be released, trust me the baddies would behind the wheel of Land Rover’s wickedest Defender ever, the new Defender Okta. Here is quite simply the most powerful, most capable and flat-out the fastest Defender yet. 

How speedy? With a fire-breathing twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 under that Kansas-flat hood cranking out 626 horsepower, it can slingshot from zero to 60 mph in a quite-insane 3.8 seconds. And not quit slingshotting until 155 mph is showing on the speedo.

But first a word about that quirky name, Okta. Certainly sounds like some Dave Bautista-style Eastern European thug who’d be on the tail of Bond’s Aston Martin. 

It’s actually derived from the octahedral shape of uncut, raw diamonds. And as we know, diamonds are the hardest and toughest of any natural material.

Here is Land Rover’s answer to those off-roading bad-boys, Mercedes-AMG’ box-on-wheels G63, Lamborghini’s Urus, the electric GMC Hummer SUV, and less pricey, but similarly-muscular offerings like Ford’s Bronco Raptor and Jeep’s Wrangler Moab 392. 

Talking of price, a 2026 Octa kicks off at around $160,000 and crests at over $170,000 nicely loaded. That’s around $37,000 less than the Mercedes.

One welcome change is that not all Oktas come in stealthy black. Choose from Borasco Grey, Charente Grey, a lovely Sargasso Blue, and rich Petra Copper. 

Want black? It’ll cost you an extra $10,000 for the stand-alone Octa Black model. Confusing the equation even more, the early, now-sold-out Edition One models, like our test car, came with mossy Faroe Green paint. 

As you might expect, the Okta starts life as a standard Defender 110 and gets a new wardrobe of exterior body armor to give it the visual appearance of Tony Stark in Iron Man. 

Wider wheel arches add 2.7 inches to the beam and cover new 20-inch wheels shod with knobbly, specially-developed 33-inch diameter Goodyear Advanced All-Terrain tires. 

Add to those, a unique grille design, new front and rear bumpers, a new four-pipe active exhaust, and layers of tough underbody protection, no doubt to fend off the occasional land mine.

The really big change comes under the hood. While the regular Defender V8 features a 518-hp supercharged 5.0-liter V8, the Octa shakes things up with a BMW-sourced twin-turbo mild-hybrid 4.4-liter V8 packing that 626 hp. 

It’s the same one used in the Range Rover Sport SV and similar to the motor powering BMW’s potent X5M 4×4 and M5 sedan rocketship. 

While most Oktas will no doubt spend their lives terrorizing the Trader Joe’s parking lot, just a few might get their tires dirty on a trip to a trailhead or the owner’s Aspen ski lodge. 

And for the purpose of going offroad, the Okta is seriously over-qualified. 

In addition to standard four-wheel drive, beefed-up suspension components and bigger brakes, it gets a trick innovation called 6D Dynamics. 

This features height-adjustable air springs and hydraulically cross-liked adaptive dampers which virtually eliminate pitch and body roll on and off-road. McLaren uses a similar system for its 750S supercar.  

It translates into pretty astonishing on-road handling for a bruiser that tips the scales at around 5,900 pounds and stands over 78 inches tall. 

Coupled with faster, more precise steering, a Dynamic mode that adds Red Bull to all major systems, plus 553 lb-ft of twin-turbo torque, and the Okta is a total, undiluted blast to drive.

I could just imagine the next Bond – whoever that might be – wide-eyed as his Aston’s rear-view was filled with the snarling snout of a new Defender Okta. 

It would be enough to scare the living daylights out of him.