Bowler Fast Road Defender 90 XS
Bowler's 2015 Defender 90 hard top XS with the firm's Fast Road suspension and a Stage 1 tune of the 2.2-litre TDCi: a black 90 with black alloys, a silver grille and a large red BOWLER script across the hard top, built to show what Bowler's rally-raid engineering could do for a standard Defender — sold from Richard Hayward's collection at RM Sotheby's Paris in 2021.
History
Alongside its competition cars Bowler Motorsport sold upgrades for ordinary Defenders, and this 2015 Defender 90 hard top XS was the firm's demonstrator for them: its Fast Road suspension package — dampers, springs and geometry from the rally programme tuned for tarmac — and a Stage 1 remap of the 2.2-litre Ford TDCi. RM Sotheby's, offering it in Paris in February 2021 from the collection of former Bowler Brands director Richard Hayward, described it as showing 'the performance potential of these obsolete vehicles' after Defender production ended.
The car is black throughout with black alloy wheels, black arch extensions and a black tube front bumper with red recovery points, the silver Puma grille with BOWLER lettered on the bonnet lip, and a large red BOWLER script across each side of the hard top. The queue row's image link pointed at the neighbouring lot, Bowler's white 2013 Defender Challenge car VK13 ULX; the correct photograph from the same story is the one modelled here. The 90's registration is not given in the source, so its plates are left blank.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Bowler ↗Land Rover (Defender 90 hard top XS); Fast Road conversion by Bowler Motorsport
- Manufactured
- 2015 Defender 90 XS; Bowler conversion
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Bowler ↗port
- Engine type
- 2.2 L Ford TDCi turbo-diesel inline-four, Bowler Stage 1 tune
- Production run
- 1 documented (Bowler demonstrator)
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- preserved (sold at auction, Paris 2021)
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Defender
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 90″
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- King of the Hills: a collection of extreme Bowler off-roaders primed for Paris — 2015 Land Rover Defender 90 Hardtop XS by Bowler (Fast Road suspension, Stage 1 tuned 2.2 L); Richard Hayward collection, RM Sotheby's Paris 2021 ↗ — RM Sotheby's (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://rmsothebys.com/stories/king-of-the-hills-a-collection-of-extreme-bowler-off-roaders-primed-for-paris/ https://rmsothebys.com/stories/king-of-the-hills-a-collection-of-extreme-bowler-off-roaders-primed-for-paris/ ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T07:03:46.154Z · status: researched