![Off-road in this Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Classic & Sports Car – Future classic: Jeep Wrangler](/sites/default/files/styles/article/public/2020-08/Classic%20%26%20Sports%20Car%20%E2%80%93%20Future%20classic%20%E2%80%93%20Jeep%20Wrangler%20%E2%80%93%2000.png?itok=C2WLE_L8)
Land Rover’s new Defender is, by all accounts, quite a machine. But is it a Defender in any more than name?
Where the original could trace its roots back to the Series One of 1948, the new version is more Discovery in rugged clothing than lightly civilised army surplus.
So where do those buyers go now for a utility vehicle without the ‘sports’ at the front?
They could do worse than the direct descendent of the car that inspired the Landie in the first place.
![The Jeep Wrangler is a practical future classic Classic & Sports Car – Future classic: Jeep Wrangler](/sites/default/files/2020-08/Classic%20%26%20Sports%20Car%20%E2%80%93%20Future%20classic%20%E2%80%93%20Jeep%20Wrangler%20%E2%80%93%2005.png)
![You can even feel the wind in your hair in the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Classic & Sports Car – Future classic: Jeep Wrangler](/sites/default/files/2020-08/Classic%20%26%20Sports%20Car%20%E2%80%93%20Future%20classic%20%E2%80%93%20Jeep%20Wrangler%20%E2%80%93%2007.png)
![Big tyres also aid off-road progress Classic & Sports Car – Future classic: Jeep Wrangler](/sites/default/files/2020-08/Classic%20%26%20Sports%20Car%20%E2%80%93%20Future%20classic%20%E2%80%93%20Jeep%20Wrangler%20%E2%80%93%2006.png)
As a little reminder of its additional heritage, when you turn on the Jeep’s ignition a shady image of an original Willys appears on the dash along with the legend ‘since 1941’.