The creative tuners at E.C.D. Automotive Design recently unveiled their newest restomod build based on the marvelously stodgy Defender. It’s called Project Camper, and it looks ready to be packed with sleeping bags and flyrods.
The Florida-based team at E.C.D. set their sights on reimagining a classic Land Rover, and settled on a Defender 110 as a base vehicle. The result is quicker than it looks; Land Rover’s iconic boxy builds were never revered for their speed or power, but now, after some deft manipulation, the slow and clunky is quite speedy.
A new 6.2-liter LS3 V8 engine pumping out 565 horsepower allowed E.C.D. tuners to give the vehicle a 0-60 sprint of just six seconds. Sure, compared to a supercar, six seconds isn’t much to write home about. But bear in mind that it takes more than double that time for a stock Defender with a diesel engine to hit 60.
Power production aside, E.C.D’s take on the Defender is also sleek and stylish. Eight white leather seats and plenty of updated tech like Apple CarPlay and an Alpine infotainment system flesh out the E.C.D. vision of a summer getaway vehicle.