Land Rover Philippines is in a festive mood this holiday season as they will be launching a new variant of the Defender very soon. But don’t expect the new model to have a four-cylinder or an inline-six under the hood as the vehicle will have eight cylinders arranged in a V.

That’s right, the Land Rover Defender V8 is coming to the Philippines and from its namesake, it will have one heck of an engine. The official specifications have yet to be revealed although we already know what to expect once it’s revealed.

Nestled under the hood of this particular Defender is a 5.0-liter supercharged V8 that generates a whopping 525 PS and a staggering 625 nm of torque. Power is then sent to all four wheels via an 8-speed automatic transmission. Depending on the body style, the 90 Series Defender V8 can sprint from 0 - 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds while the 110 Series version can catapult itself to 100 km/h in a brisk 5.4 seconds.

Aside from having a more powerful engine under the hood, the Defender V8 also gets a reworked suspension to handle all that horsepower. It gets thicker anti-roll bars, an electronic rear differential with a yaw controller, and a Dynamic Driving setting for the Terrain Response system to improve throttle response.

Style-wise, we can expect the Defender V8 to look just like the non-V8 models. However, there will be some subtle differences present on the Defender V8 like the Xenon Blue brake calipers, quad exhaust pipes, and massive 22-inch wheels. We're also expecting that the 5.0-liter supercharged V8 could be offered in both the 90 and 110 series body styles for the Philippine market.

With the Land Rover Defender V8 set to be revealed next week, we won’t be surprised if there are already interested customers lining up to reserve a unit.