There are some cars you see and you stop in your tracks and tell yourself “I must have that car”. In the late 90’s that car for me was the Defender 90. At the time I was working for The North Face in Palo Alto and making virtually no money after college. The manager of the nearby San Francisco store, which was The North Face’s flagship store, was a woman named Barb and she was a big deal. Yes she ran The North Face’s largest and most profitable store….but she also owned a Defender 90. I remember meeting her and seeing her in that D90 and telling myself “Wow Barb is a badass” as well as “I must have her car”. But like I said, I was dirt poor so buying a new D90 at $35k was completely out of the question.
Then in 1997 Land Rover pulled the Defender out of the US and my chances of owning a D90 become even more unlikely as the prices for used D90s shot up almost immediately. I ended up buying a Jeep which I loved…but it was not a Defender. I kept dreaming of owning a Defender and every few months I would poke around on the used market to keep taps on prices. Life then got complicated and I shelved my D90 dreams, but I never stopped looking.
Me with my Jeep in 2003…
As time went on more and more imported Defenders came into the US as they crossed over in age. Once I had the means to buy a Defender (now at a premium) the issue became how to legally acquire one which was not easy since I live in CA. The Defenders that were built for the US market between 94 and 97 were NAS (North America Spec) and thus could be registered in any state. The Defenders built for the rest of world but imported into the US are difficult to register in CA due to CA DMV’s regulation. You could go through the process to get one of these non-NAS Defenders inspected by the DMV, CHP, and registered but it was a long process and you ran the risk of owning a car you could not legally drive. Not to mention many of the imported Defenders came from wet environments like the UK which meant they had more rust than metal. So I focused on other car projects….namely track and race cars.
1994 Defender 90 NAS
Then one day my wife and I were talking about Defenders and we said F%ck it. You only live once and we wanted a fun weekend car for the family. So I found this beautiful 94 yellow D90 NAS virtually stock in great condition and we immediately bought it. We will do light modifications to this but we will do our best to stay true to the Landy spirit, but hopefully with less oil leaks. This is also a good starting point to go deep into the Defender world as I have also always wanted a Defender 110 with an engine swap, but that is a project for another day. For now we will enjoy our Defender and I will finally make good on the promise I made myself 24 years ago. Barb I am sure you don't remember me but I still remember you as a bad ass…..and now I have your Defender.