- Helderburg’s Land Rover Defender Vermeer retains the original engine.
- A glimmering shade of white with contrasting black accents is applied to their show car.
- Inside the cabin, you’ll find high-end Scottish leather with a bright red finish.
If there’s anything we’ve learned from the explosion in popularity of restomods in recent years, it’s that these cars are often extraordinarily expensive. Generally built by hand, an ambitious restomod can easily quadruple the going rate of a donor car.
Case in point: the latest Land Rover Defender 110 build by Arkansas-based Helderburg. Dubbed Vermeer, it’s named after 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, and takes inspiration from the artist’s pioneering use of light to create a (very) special Defender. The only issue is that it costs $403,740, meaning you could buy two brand-new Defender Octas and a Range Rover Sport, and still have change to spare.
Read: They Spent Nearly $400,000 On A Classic Defender, And Didn’t Even Swap The Engine
Helderburg is particularly proud of the Vermeer’s paint finish. It’s a pearl white metallic that glistens in direct sunlight, giving it a classy silvery flair, contrasted perfectly by a black roof and other black accents. Chief among these black trimmings are the side steps, wing mirrors, wheels, door handles and hinges, front grille, and the badges.
What About The Powertrain?
Many classic Defender restomods we’ve seen in recent years are equipped with large-capacity V8s, usually LSs, perfect for those power-hungry buyers who want performance to match a modern off-roader. That’s not the case here, as the original 300Tdi turbo-diesel has been retained, albeit upgraded to make it a little more usable.
The company added new high-performance brakes and made a few necessary tweaks to the suspension. Then there’s the interior, which is arguably the highlight of this Defender.
Special in-house-designed glass has been fitted, protecting from ultraviolet rays and, most importantly, making the Defender’s cabin much quieter. There’s also bright red Scottish gull-grain leather, said to be hard-wearing and to offer that lovely leather aroma for decades, according to Helderburg. This pricey restomod also rocks new instruments, a custom steering wheel, a revised dashboard, and plenty of new touchpoints, helping to at least somewhat justify the price tag.
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