The Land Rover Defender has just completed 67 years, and this year’s Goodwood revival festival will mark this achievement. To maintain the retro-sprit of the festival, Land Rover will be displaying key elements of the development timeline of the original series 1, which was first introduced in the UK at the Earl’s Court Motor Show in 1948. The display at the Goodwood revival meeting will include an early production chassis and several drawing board plans.

The festival will also feature a Series 1 model, which will be positioned at 45 degrees in order to showcase it superb capabilities that it brought to the market. To maintain the Land Rover Defender theme, the team manning the display will be dressed in replica engineering clothing which was once worn by Land Rover production workers in the 1940’s.

Owners of Land Rover will get an opportunity to participate in an entire action packed weekend with more than fifty pre-1966 Series models including an extensive lineup of exclusive conversions body styles, which will be on static display for the remainder of the Goodwood Festival. The conversions will range from prototypes, military conversions, fire tenders, recovery vehicles, Tickford conversions, ambulances and mobile welders. 11 of the owners of pre-production Land Rovers have confirmed their participation in the event. With many of these Land Rover’s, modified car insurance would be required as they are not your usual run of the mill defenders.

Managing director of Jaguar Land Rover UK – Jeremy Hicks says that seeing such a brilliant display of several significant Land Rovers in one location is an event that simply can’t be missed. A unique Defender Edition, the Defender 2,000,000 will be on display at the Bonhams’ stand at the festival, and will be sold at a charity auction hosted by the Bonhams on December 16, 2015. The money raised from the auction of the special edition Defender will go to support the Born Free Foundation, Red Crescent Societies and the International Federation, which are some of Land Rover’s humanitarian partners.

Good news however for Land Rover enthusiasts is the expected next generation Land Rover Defender, which is set to take center stage 2018. The all new Defender will be sold in the US market, and available in a choice of five body styles including a short wheelbase 2 door with soft top and a long wheelbase pickup. All the revamped versions of the Land Rover Defender will be fitted with Jaguar Land Rover’s proprietary diesel and gas engines, and mated with either nine speed automatic or six speed manual transmissions.

Jaguar Land Rover’s current plan to increase rigidity of the new Defenders is by connecting two sub-frames with a lightweight unibody. In addition, the all new Defenders will also be appointed with exclusively engineered Terrain Response Systems along with surround view cameras, extended range headlights and climb and descent modes. The all new Land Rover Defender will be a close rival of Mercedes Benz G-Class and Jeep Wrangler among others.