If You Want An Original Land Rover Defender, Get This Instead

“It has character,” are three words classic Land Rover Defender owners boast tirelessly when defending all the quirks and oddities of the old English workhorse. What the phrase really translates to is “yeah, it leaks oil, the doors shut properly sometimes and when there’s an electrical issue it’s complete guesswork as to which wire does what, but I bought it and have to live with it.” It’s a type of unconditional love affair that’s all too common throughout the classic car world. And to anyone unfamiliar with owning a vintage Defender, learning about the labor that goes along with the love can be both eye-opening and disheartening. Himalaya, a custom build shop just outside of Charleston, South Carolina wants to change all that and build Defenders to a higher standard, the Defenders most of the world imagines when they hear the name.

Mechanical reliability, precision engineering and luxury are not the Defender’s strong suits. It may have a similar silhouette to a modern SUV, but a Defender is only a few notches above a farm tractor with a four-walls enclosure. Look no further than the restoration and modification market, flooded with outfits like East Coast Defender, Icon 4×4 and Arkonik. There’s a reason a demand for old overlanders and four-wheelers with modern updates exists. Himalaya stands out from the pack, according to its Arthur Lekic Director of Operations. “A lot of guys are restoring these things. We don’t restore anything. We build everything from new parts from the frame up.” It’s a bold claim, but it rings true. Himalaya is the sole distributor in the US for the box-welded and galvanized chassis which come from the UK, brand-new. Even original, unused parts like doors, hoods and body panels are sourced from around the world from Defenders that didn’t need them.

Starting with a new Defender chassis, Himalaya can go in one of two directions with each build. If you align more closely with the faithful restoration camp, Himalaya will build you what they label as a “Defender by Himalaya,” which is a Defender near-identical to the ones that rolled off the assembly line in Solihull, England in the ‘80s and ‘90s. From there Himalaya can add disc brakes, upgrade the stereo and turn up the turbo, little touches to add a pinch of modernity. 

Admittedly, however, the basic Defender by Himalaya build is only a fraction of the capabilities of the engineers and mechanics working in the shop . “We’ve got ex-military contract guys who used to work on Humvees, we’ve got former Harley-Davidson pinstripe guys, drift car guys, everybody here comes from totally different backgrounds.” Lekic went on to say, “One guy was a guitar builder out of Nashville, and builds the custom center consoles and cabinets. Tuning resonant frequencies inside of wooden cabinets.” Himalaya isn’t some dusty tuner shop hidden down a dirt road, everybody working on the trucks there are at a master skill level in their field. 

“We’ll sell the regular restored Defenders, and we’ll do an engine swap if that’s what the customer wants,” Lekic said, with a hint of reluctance, then continued, “but, for the customer who wants something that no one else has, that’s the level we’re getting into.” That “level,”  Lekic is referring to is the Himalayas, the full-on custom projects. While a Defender 90 or Defender 110 by Himalaya starts at $115,000-$125,000 and takes four months to build, a custom Himalaya will run you at least $165,000 and take six months to complete. 

It’s understandable Himalaya would want to build more of the unique projects with prices ranging from $165,000-$250,000, but there was genuine excitement in Lekic’s voice when he pored over the countless paths a Himalaya can take. “We’re wrapping the truck around the customer. That means we look at things like their music tastes. Will it be a family vehicle? What sort of performance do they want? If a customer asks us to build a rally car Defender, our answer is ‘in a heartbeat,’ no problem.” 

Underneath the sheet metal and custom interiors, Himalaya puts GM LS engines to use, getting them from a supplier that sorts out the wiring harness and adjusts the fuel mapping how Himalaya wants but it can be taken to anywhere to get serviced. Lecik said they went even further than that, “We’ve gone away from Land Rover axles, driveshafts, anything that’s a problem to find in America. So we just totally Americanized the most British thing on the planet.”

In a world where old Defenders are often looked at through rose-tinted glasses and get all the attention and likes on Instagram, it’s easy to forget it’s a raw, industrial vehicle. It is competent off-road and makes a wonderful blank canvas for an overlanding rig, but its essence is  the antithesis of glamping and every #vanlife van with 250,000-plus followers. An original Defender truly appeals to only a small group of people. “A ‘proper land rover’ is not up to US standards in taste,” said Lekic. “This isn’t what anyone here wants to drive. Maybe the enthusiast or the guy who has a farm somewhere. we don’t have to settle for this.” 

Original Land Rover Defenders aren’t the dream cars everyone thinks they are, but they can be and that’s what Himalaya is out to prove.

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