Automotive World

To that end, the British automaker brought both its DC100 hardtop and DC100 Sport convertible 4x4 studies to this week's Los Angeles Auto Show to gauge customer reactions and explore the possibility of bringing the Defender back to the US market.

"Our intention is to introduce the all new Defender in the middle of the decade - there's a lot of work to do to meet these dates and our concepts are just the start of the journey," says John Edwards, Land Rover Global Brand Director. "We are here in LA to showcase our DC100 and DC100 Sport concepts and start to actively explore the possibility of bringing the future Defender to North America."

Startech, a sub-brand of Mercedes-Benz specialist Brabus, has developed an on-road oriented tuning package for both the three- and five-door versions the Evoque, which will make its debut at this week's 2011 Dubai International Motor Show.

The package includes newly shaped front and rear bumpers, front grille, spoiler and air inlets that are said to have been fine-tuned in the wind tunnel to reduce lift on the front axle at high speeds.

The news comes courtesy of Edmund's Insideline, which had a brief encounter with Land Rover Global Brand Director, John Edwards.

The British firm's executive told the news outlet that Land Rover is testing the waters with the DC100 concepts and that it is a working project.