What would happen if you took the running gear from a Range Rover Sport, crossed it with the running gear from a Land Rover Defender? You'd get the off-road rallying version of a Land Rover Sport. It's a vehicle that reminds us of the Range Stormer of 2004 concept, only with less pretense and more actual gruntability. It's the product of Bowler Off-Road, an off-road racing manufacturer from Derbyshire, best known for its Wildcat off-road rally car, which won the privateer category in the past two Dakar Rallies. The two-seater shares 40 percent of its parts with the Range Rover Sport, but is is shorter and lower, and rides on a purpose-built spaceframe chassis. The body is but a shell of glass-reinforced polyurethane. Under the bonnet (that's hood), there's the familiar 4.2-liter V8, converted to run on E85 bio-ethanol, computer-remapped to achieve 510 horsepower, instead of the stock 385. It's a Dakar bargain at £120,000, and the company says a roadgoing version is on the way. Lock up your cactuses. [Car]

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