A staple of British design and automotive engineering, Land Rover Defender, is being outsourced. The next generation model, which the company states will be absed off their DC100 concept, will be produced in Pune, India.

This variant won’t be on sale until late 2014 as a 2015 model. The move will apparently reduce costs while putting production closer to markets where the model is still popular. Despite the change, some vehicles could be sent back to Europe for final assembly.

Other rumors suggest 2015′s Defender could be carried on the T5 chassis, which underpins LR4 Discovery, as well as Range Rover Sport. Styling will be heavily influenced by the DC100 concepts, however.

Source: WCF

It was feared that the niche Defender would go the way of the Dodo bird by 2012, but that is not the case. The auto maker reports their Defender range is likely to continue until 2017, or maybe later. An entirely new Defender design will replace its current model in 2015.

A shorter wheel-based Defender, called DC100, was previewed at the Frankfurt Motor Show. This, along with longer 110 and 130 variants, will include a 2.2-liter diesel engine.

“There are a number of changes to the legislation that mean we can keep the current Defender in production longer than we thought,” said a Land Rover source. We’ll keep you posted on all the latest from land Rover, and congrats to all the Defender lovers out there!

Source: AutoCar

Also known as the Land Rover DC100 concept, this is the official preview of the upcoming next-generation Defender, scheduled for release in 2015. It will debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show later this month.

According to Land Rover’s director of design, Gerry McGovern: “Replacing the iconic Defender is one of the biggest challenges in the automotive design world; it is a car that inspires people worldwide. This isn’t a production-ready concept but the beginning of a four-year journey to design a relevant Defender for the 21st century.”

Source: WCF

The limited edition also features its own set of gloss-black 16-inch alloy wheels in a Saw Tooth design. For the interior is a leather finish in Ebony with leather side bolsters for the seats.

Under the hood is the standard 2.4 liter diesel unit with 122 bhp and 266 lb-ft of torque. The 2011 Defender X-Tech was introduced at the Brussels Motor Show on January 10th.

Source: WCF

Sonim Technologies IP-67 GSM Mobile Phone

The “S1″ allows you to fully submerge it in up to 3.3 feet of water for 30 minutes. With 1500 hours of stand-by battery life, that’s 18 hours of talk-time, this $490 UK mobile also includes a 2 mega-pixel waterproof camera with built-in flash, torch light, GPS, FM radio, 2GB memory slot, J2ME Java, Bluetooth and an Opera Mini WAP browser. (source: Jalopnik)

Land Rover brand Shirts, Hats, and so on

All the cool kids in school are sporting their Land Rover polo shirts, along with that smashing baseball cap and even Land Rover brand sneakers. Car companies throwing their logos on t-shirts is nothing new, I mean if it wasn’t for redneck Chevy shirts Walmart’s clothing department would be a heck of a lot smaller. (source: Rover Parts)

The Official Land Rover Watch

This Officially Licensed Land Rover watch features 100 meters of water resistance, digital chronograph, tachymeter, stainless steel strap, stainless steel case and mineral glass. It comes with a fancy Land Rover gift box, instructions and lifetime guarantee.

Land Rover Camping/Safari Equipment

We’d all love to live out of our Land Rover Defenders – and with the Safari full tent set you can. A must have for all those trekking through Africa, this pop-up house includes a sleeping quarters, outdoor set and shower. Hungry? Prepare a three course meal in the Land Rover Galley Kitchen! (source: Rooftent.co.uk)

While most of the world’s most hard-core off-roaders – Toyota Land Cruiser, Mercedes G-Wagen, Hummer H2 – have all gone luxed-out, the Defender soldiers on as the bare-bones option. Essentially the same body-on-frame design from 1948, the Defender is still hand-assembled. But what’s Land Rover to do when the market demands luxury? Lux out the Defender, of course.

The limited-production Fire & Ice editions come packed with all the features they could fit in the Defender: Recaro buckets, leather and Alcantara trim, diamond-turned alloys, color-coded head- and tail- lights, glass sunroof panel, running boards and more. The Fire edition comes in a special Vesuvius Orange metallic paint, the Ice edition in Alaska white, both offset by Santorini black accents. All that kit drives the price of the special Land Rover up to €68,400, the equivalent of about $95,000. Just 850 examples will be on offer in various markets across Europe, China and in South Africa. Check out the high-res images in the gallery below for all the angles.

Pictures from Land Rover via AutoBlog.com

Burgess first had the idea back in 1992 for his “Cape to Cape” expedition (http://capetocape.org.uk/) where the adventurer was in South Africa and wanted to be in South America. After looking at a map he realized the only challenging body of water to cross was the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska. A bit of a trip from The Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn – We catch up with their voyage on the cusp of Siberia in their retrofitted Defender.

Prowling through the Russian tundra is probably the easiest feat Cape to Cape’s Land Rover had to face during this journey, a real issue arouse when the vehicle and team made it to the Strait – forcing them to not only cross a car over water, but freezing cold water with ice chunks to boot. We wonder if there was some sort of border crossing procedure which took place when the truck left land in Russia or when it surfaced on United States territory.

Once the expedition reached land’s end on the Asian continent it was time to make this Land Rover waterproof. With the addition of an extra drive shaft to power a propeller, twin floats were attached to each side of the vehicle – with a combined volume of 1480 gallons and the ability to keep almost 6 tons of buoyancy. After being stripped of non-essential equipment (hopefully not seats or heat) its two-man crew, weighing three tons, successfully crossed the Bering Strait – after stopping mid way on the tiny island of Little Diomede for 30 days to avoid a number of obstacles related to both weather and native.

Aside from heavy storms accompanied by strong winds the tiny amount of island residents (population 140) were apathetic towards providing a safety boat, causing the entire trip to stop for an indeterminate amount of time. Burgess ended up flying to Alaska by himself, then back to the UK to raise money to purchase a safety boat and continue on.

The wait was worth all Cape to Cape’s trouble. The first week of August between Russia and Alaska brought gorgeous weather and an easy trek across the sea. Land Rover’s floating Cape to Cape Defender made it across in just under 19 hours. Burgess said it himself: “To be the first team to cross the Bering Strait in a motor vehicle was a fantastic feeling.”

All that’s left is for the team to head down the west coasts of North & South America – and on to Cape Horn, a task that will begin this winter when Burgess returns from checking up on his farm. The man needs to eat, after all.