Urban Automotive has revealed the Widetrack Avontur prototype, a luxury pickup based on the Land Rover Defender 110 Hard Top commercial.
Shown at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Avontur is Urban’s attempt to push the Defender beyond its usual SUV and commercial roles, creating something closer to a luxury lifestyle pickup.
It’s clearly not a working pickup in the traditional sense, and it probably won’t be replacing a Hilux, D-Max or Ranger on a building site any time soon. But as a high-end estate, marina, event or lifestyle vehicle, it’s exactly the sort of oddball Defender-based creation that will get people talking.
Urban describes the Avontur as a “luxury lifestyle utility vehicle”, combining its Widetrack styling package with a completely reworked rear body.
The conversion uses the Defender 110 Hard Top as its base, meaning it starts with the commercial version of the Defender rather than the passenger model. From there, Urban has created a bespoke rear structure with an exposed carbon-fibre load bed and an integrated modular utility rail system.
There is also a structural framework with an integrated rollover structure, designed specifically for the vehicle, while the standard tailgate functionality has been retained. Urban has even fitted an integrated bottle holder within the tailgate, because apparently even carbon-fibre lifestyle utility vehicles need somewhere sensible to keep a drink.
The Avontur uses more than 36 bespoke components, including a replacement carbon-fibre bonnet, carbon-fibre side trims, bespoke rear body architecture, an exposed carbon-fibre load bed, an embossed Urban Automotive logo in the bed floor, and a new rollover framework.
Urban hasn’t confirmed payload or towing figures yet, which are fairly important details for anything claiming utility status. Then again, the exposed carbon-fibre load bed suggests this may be more suited to carefully curated lifestyle cargo than a pallet of blocks or a battered livestock gate.
Customers will be able to commission the Avontur with Forged Carbon, Urban 2×2 Carbon Fibre, or Urban 4×4 Carbon Fibre finishes, in gloss or matt lacquer, all of which sound delightful.
Matthew Welch, managing director of Urban Automotive, said: “Goodwood is the perfect stage for Urban to show where the brand is going next. The Avontur is a deeply personal project for me because it represents everything I believe Urban should stand for: pushing boundaries, creating desire, engineering with purpose, and building vehicles that make people stop, look, and think differently.”
He added: “This is not simply another interpretation of the Defender. The Avontur is a luxury lifestyle utility vehicle with genuine practicality. It could sit outside a hotel in Monaco, arrive at a marina, cross a country estate, or be working in a field yet feel equally relevant in every setting.”
That last claim might be doing a fair bit of heavy lifting, but the idea is clear enough. The Avontur is aimed at customers who like the rugged image and commercial roots of a Defender, but want something rarer, more dramatic and much more expensive-looking than a standard Hard Top.
