DIFFLOCKEDTHE REGISTRY
Named model · Defender · 1983–2016 (One Ten from 1983; badged Defender 110 from 1990)

Defender 110

The 110-inch-wheelbase core of Land Rover's coil-sprung utility line, launched as the One Ten in 1983 and badged Defender 110 from 1990; built as station wagon, hard top and pickup until production ended in January 2016.

Defender 110 — front three-quarter render

Factory colours

Codes on hover. Hex values are representative approximations of period paint unless a source states a measured value.

History

Land Rover replaced its leaf-sprung Series models with an all-new coil-sprung chassis in 1983, launching the One Ten — named for its 110-inch wheelbase — with permanent four-wheel drive, a one-piece windscreen and wind-up windows, but body panels and outline barely changed from the Series III. The short-wheelbase Ninety followed in 1984 on a nominal 90-inch (actually 92.9-inch) wheelbase, and from 1985 the stretched Land Rover 127 joined the range, built as a crew-cab and chassis-cab platform for heavy utility bodywork. Engines at first carried over from the Series line — 2.25-litre (soon 2.5-litre) petrol and diesel four-cylinders and the 3.5-litre Rover V8 — with a turbocharged Diesel Turbo arriving in 1986.

When the Discovery arrived in 1989 the original Land Rover needed a name of its own, and for the 1991 model year the One Ten, Ninety and 127 became the Defender 110, 90 and 130 — the 130 keeping its 127-inch wheelbase despite the tidier badge. The renaming came with a major mechanical upgrade: the 200Tdi, a 2.5-litre direct-injection intercooled turbodiesel developed for the Discovery, which gave the Defender usable motorway pace and modern fuel economy for the first time.

The engine line then marked out the Defender's generations: the refined 300Tdi replaced the 200Tdi in 1994, the five-cylinder electronically-managed Td5 followed in 1998, and from spring 2007 the Ford 2.4-litre Duratorq TDCi ('Puma') arrived with a six-speed gearbox and a redesigned interior, downsized to a 2.2-litre for the 2012 model year to meet emissions rules. Through all of it the Defender remained the working Land Rover — farm hack, military workhorse, expedition truck and aid-agency staple — assembled at Solihull with construction fundamentally unchanged from 1983.

The 130 stood slightly apart from its shorter siblings: sold almost exclusively as a chassis-cab, crew-cab or high-capacity pickup rather than a station wagon, it carried dropside bodies, box ambulances and fire pumps, and its double-cab-plus-tray layout made it the standard platform for utility fleets and military ambulance conversions.

Defender production ended on 29 January 2016, when the 2,016,933rd vehicle of the Series/Defender line — a soft-top Defender 90 Heritage registered H166 HUE, echoing the first pre-production Land Rover HUE 166 — rolled off the Solihull line after 68 years of continuous production. The all-new Defender (L663) unveiled in September 2019 and on sale from 2020 is a distinct, monocoque successor; this registry's records cover the classic coil-sprung line.

Imagery

Defender 110 Station Wagon in Coniston Green, the registry's primary colour for the model
Defender 110 Station Wagon in Coniston Green, the registry's primary colour for the model Ethan Llamas · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗
1986 Land Rover One Ten Station Wagon — the coil-sprung One Ten wore no Defender badge until 1990
1986 Land Rover One Ten Station Wagon — the coil-sprung One Ten wore no Defender badge until 1990 Sicnag · CC BY 2.0 ↗

Registry record

Manufacturer
Land Rover
Manufactured
1983–2016 (One Ten from 1983; badged Defender 110 from 1990)
Engine type
2.25/2.5 L petrol and diesel fours and 3.5 L Rover V8 (One Ten, 1983–1990); 2.5 L 200Tdi/300Tdi turbodiesels (1990–1998); 2.5 L Td5 five-cylinder (1998–2007); Ford 2.4 then 2.2 L Duratorq TDCi 'Puma' (2007–2016)
Production run
No per-wheelbase totals published; the Series/Defender line together reached 2,016,933 vehicles when production ended in January 2016
Country of origin
United Kingdom
Status
production ended 2016; succeeded by the 2020 Defender

Catalogue data

Record kind
Named model
Model line
Defender
Family
Defender
Body style
soft
Wheels
4
Nominal wheelbase
110″
Nominal wheelbase
110″
Roof
soft

Base catalogue fields are exported from the Difflocked game. In-game physics values are arcade tuning, not certified historical measurements, and are deliberately not shown as specifications here.

Related base model variants

Sources & citations

Researched sources

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Registry record updated 2026-09-09T06:24:30.219Z · status: researched