Trying out the Land Rover Defender Octa's pulsating seats that stimulate passengers in time to the beat

Land Rover thinks it has discovered the future of in-car audio, and it’s not about noise cancellation or ultimate fidelity when your tunes are turned up to 11 but vibrations through your seat that enable you to actually turn down the volume. And it’s a curiously stimulating experience.

Packed into the front perches of two of Land Rover’s latest high performance 4x4s — the Range Rover Sport SV and box fresh Defender Octa — are a number of low-frequency transducers that convert electrical signals from the sound system into vibrations, much like subwoofers.

The resulting pulses are sent through your body and are designed to — in the words of the marketing bumpf — create a “multi-dimensional audio experience” that “raises that sense of connection even higher”.

It’s a technology developed for music producers and DJs by a company called Subpac, originally in the form of a sci-fi-esque waistcoat that, when worn, offers the same kind of effect. Subpac claims musicians can work in studios for longer at lower volumes if they wear one, thus helping reduce the stress on their most valuable asset — their ears.

There are other claimed benefits for DJs and music producers, too, including helping them feel low bass frequencies more easily, regardless of the size, shape and contents of the room they’re in, which makes mixing tracks easier. It’s similarly useful for onstage performances, Subpac claims.

Having climbed into the driver’s seat of the new Defender Octa, which was being demonstrated at last month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, I discovered that the automotive version offers a potential new benefit for drivers. Land Rover’s Body and Soul Seats (Bass), as they’re dubbed, feature six wellness programmes — accessed through the touchscreen on the dashboard — that have been designed to help drivers either relax or feel more alert.

Created in collaboration with Coventry University’s world-renowned National Transport Design Centre, as well as its School of Media and Performing Arts, the programmes feature dedicated music tracks and pulsing rhythms that, in combination with the car’s 29-speaker, 1,430w Meridian Signature Sound System, are claimed to “influence heart rate variability (HRV) — the variation in time between each heartbeat.”

Land Rover Body and Soul Seats audio graphic by Subpac

“The seats allow you to feel the music at a much lower level, without your ears bleeding,” explained Guy Boulton, JLR’s product manager for the Defender and Discovery models. “But we’ve also got wellness programs on the Pivi Pro infotainment that you can use almost as a massage function, but it’s much less severe than a massage. You need to feel it to understand it.”

The six settings range from “Calm” through “Soothe”, “Serene”, “Cool” and “Tonic” to “Invigorate”. The latter, it is claimed, has been proven in studies to boost cognitive response, while the former was engineered to reduced anxiety. That’s certainly something many nervous drivers will appreciate, though perhaps those same motorists might not have picked as their daily driver the most powerful Land Rover Defender ever made (the Octa boasts 635bhp and a 0-62mph time of just 3.8 seconds).

Land Rover Body and Soul Seats wellness programmes

The bespoke songs and programme settings are stored in the car’s Pivi Pro infotainment system, rather than in the cloud, which means that no data connection is required for your moment of calm/ stimulation.

The sensation is an odd one at first. When listening to music it is, as Boulton described, much like getting a whole-back massage from a practitioner who’s very into the tunes. The Wellbeing modes will need a longer test for a proper evaluation, to see if it does genuinely help occupants calm down or become more alert, but having such pulses blasted through your body is certainly… interesting.

Each setting can be further adjusted for intensity, which means you can go for a mild rumble or a much more stimulating effect. And though according to Subpac’s website the transducers are mounted solely in the seatback, I could have sworn I was also being “invigorated” though my backside. Boulton said he believed there were indeed two pads in the Octa’s seat base, too.

“My wife liked it,” he confided. “She is very sceptical about a lot of technology and gadgets, but she said it was really good.”

Damn my inner Roger Moore, which on hearing this, pushed up my left eyebrow and caused me to blurt out: “Is it something that women might enjoy a little more than men, then?”

“Well, yeah, maybe that’s the reason…” Boulton pauses. “Oh, you’ve ruined my day now.”

Well, it’s a potential selling point, isn’t it?

A walkaround of the Land Rover Defender Octa with Guy Boulton

Guy Boulton Land Rover Defender Octa walkaround

Land Rover’s Defender and Discovery product chief takes us on a journey around and inside the Land Rover Defender Octa.

“So, here it is: Defender Octa, our new halo product in the Defender ‘house of brands’. It sits somewhere above the existing V8, the 5-litre supercharged models, and takes Defender in pretty much every area to a new level.

“If we start with the powertrain, we’re now on a 4.4-litre twin-turbo mild hybrid with 635 horsepower (626bhp) and 750 newton metres (553 lb ft) of torque. And we can peak at 800 newton metres (590 lb ft) with the mild hybrid kicking in, which we can deploy in dynamic launch mode.

Land Rover Defender Octa engine infographic

“Obviously, it’s a partner engine that we’re using. As you probably know a version of the engine is used in the M5, but for our applications, both in Range Rover Sport and probably more particularly in Octa, we’ve made sure that it can cope with the dynamic load that we can put through it, and also the geometry that we’ll submit the car to. So the engine is tuned for our particular usage.

“And also, we’ve made sure it can breathe quite happily in a metre of water. The engine breathing is done through the intakes on the wings. Normally on Defender, one of them is non-operative and all the breathing is done on the other side, but on the Octa it breathes through both sides.

“And if you wade much beyond a metre, the problem is the car gets buoyant. So that kind of limits your wading because you start to float away. So the max depth is one metre, which is 100mm up from the air suspension car.

“Brakes… on the front we’ve got six-pot monoblock callipers, partnered with Brembo. They’re steel brakes, there’s no carbon brake option because you wouldn’t really want that if you’re wading or heavy braking.

Small is good when it comes to wheels

“These are 20in wheels and we’ve got three-wheel styles. On Octa Edition 1 we’ve got a 20in wheel. It looks like an old Compomotive rally wheel. It seems bizarre that the halo wheel is the smallest, but it’s the coolest.

“It’s also about the tyre choice that it gives you: we’ve got the all-season and it enables the maximum limited speed of 155mph; we’ve got an intermediate off-road tyre, which is limited to 119mph; and then we’ve got the full-fat off-roader, the Goodyear Duratrac, which is a real chunky tread pattern that has a max speed of 99mph. But it suits the character of Octa the best, I would say, and it’s proved very popular because the wheel style is great-looking, and it’s very much in character with Defender.

“One advantage of them is you get that big sidewall; I wouldn’t say you can’t kerb a 20in wheel on Defender but you’ve got so much more sidewall, and it also gives you a bit of a better ride with a bit more compliance in the actual tyre.

“In terms of the capability it gives you, we have this complicated spider chart of all of the areas of capability of the car, and Octa is designed to widen that envelope in every area, effectively. So, be it ground clearance, obstacle clearance, all of the approach, departure, and the break-over angles — they are all extended.

Land Rover Defender Octa off-road height

“We sit 28mm higher than the regular Defender in standard mode. You’ve still got the access mode, to lower it, as well as off-road height, so if the car detects that it needs it, it can pump the suspension up a little bit further. And it looks like it’s on stilts.

Aggressive design

“In terms of the exterior, there’s an all-new front bumper with a new ‘squircle’ (rounded-off square) design, which allows lots of cooling in.

Land Rover Defender Octa squircle grille

“You also get the much wider wheel arch extensions — we’re 68mm wider than the standard car — so it gives it a really good stance. And clearly off-road, that gives you more capability.

“Round the back all-new rear bumper with much neater integrated exhausts. If you think about the Defender V8, it had the quad exhaust but they’re not particularly integrated. Whereas these are much neater. Again, it’s really cut back, so you’ve got a really good departure angle.

“In the boot, the lip is zirconium-coated, so it’s a really tough, less scratchable material for loading. And for the first time in a Defender we’ve got a boot carpet. Removable, obviously. And then you’ve got storage space under that.

“All Octas have a contrast black tailgate. The wheel on the back of this one is the diamond turned option. You can get that in straight gloss black and in 20in. We also now fit a spare wheel lock, which covers all of the bolt holes, with a high security key and a clamp system.

“The tow loops on each side are phosphor bronze on Octa, and they’re functional: we’ve proven you can lift three Defenders off each other’s loops, daisy-chained. We did it with Top Gear.

All in the detail

“I haven’t talked about Octa as a name yet. You may have expected this Defender to be labelled SV or an SVX. With our new House of Brands philosophy, where the brands are separated, SV is now a Range Rover halo product. So for Defender the halo is now ‘Octa’.

“Octa comes from octahedron, the diamond shape. So we’ve got the diamond shape here in a badge on the C-pillar. This is actually real titanium with an enamelled centre.

“The fuel flap has been redesigned to match the shape of the wider wheelarches. Our designers said most aftermarket coachbuilders, when they do extended arches, just leave the flap alone because it’s so difficult to try and get it. Our team were very, very proud of their fuel flap. It’s really well integrated; really neat. It seems a stupid thing to spend time on but it looks so much better when it’s nicely integrated.

Octa mode

“In the rear, they are unique seats but otherwise there’s nothing different from the regular Defender 110. The seats fold so it’s just as practical as any other Defender in terms of load carrying.

“And then in the front, we’ve got unique colourways for Defender Octa. Two for Octa and then another two that are unique to the Octa Edition 1. The one being driven up the hill here at Goodwood has got the khaki interior with ultra-fabrics. And I absolutely love a green Defender with a khaki interior now.

“The steering wheel is unique, and on it is the Octa button. A short press puts it into dynamic mode. A long press and the edge illuminates red, as do the clear-effect shifters, to indicate it is in Octa mode which an off-road performance oriented mode, great for fast gravel stuff. It really comes alive, and even changes the ABS calibration like a rally car so it can lock its wheels, because on gravel ABS doesn’t really work. You want to lock the wheels, build up gravel in front of them and dig in. That’s the quickest way to stop.

Land Rover Defender Octa button illuminated red on steering wheel

“And then underneath the car, we’ve got 6D dynamic suspension which means every wheel is hydraulically interlinked. That means we don’t have anti-roll bars and you’ve got massively better axle articulation. It’s a similar system that’s fitted to the McLaren road cars, and it really stops roll, pitch and dive.

“If you remember something like the previous Range Rover Sport SVR, if you accelerated in that it really squatted down, which looked cool but it means the steering goes light and you’ve lost your dynamic balance. This accelerates, brakes and corners really flat, so you’ve always got that maximum contact patch on the road.

Land Rover Defender Octa suspension infographic

“Then on the inside you’ve got the Body and Soul Seats, allowing you to feel the beat of the music through the seat. [See above]

“With the 2025 model year, the car has picked up some interior changes including simple things to make life easier. You’ve got a much bigger wireless charging pad because with the previous one you couldn’t fit like an iPhone Pro Max. You’ve got bigger cup holders, a fridge right there in the armrest, and under the centre console there’s some hidden storage because that was one of the customer feedback points from the launch Defender.

Land Rover Defender Octa front seats and dash

“The exposed bolts are now a really dark colour rather than a silver galvanised colour, and we’ve got this lovely moonlight chrome trim around the car which is all unique to Octa, including on the edges of the steering wheel, I think the centre badge as well. So it really sort of lifts interior. There’s also a suede cloth headlining.

Put a load on (the roof)

“The other thing that you can do, which you couldn’t do on the 5-litre V8, is you can actually put a roof load on here. The regular V8 was rated at zero roof load because you could generate cornering forces in that car that you didn’t really want, due to its high centre of gravity. On here, with the 6D suspension, that keeps things level and you can now roof carry.

“And there’s a warning light when you go into Octa mode, which I’ve never seen on any other car, that comes up with a picture of the Defender with a roof rack and a cross through it, to remind you not to do anything silly if you’ve got a roof load.

An everyday car… with a wild side

“The sort of people who’re buying Defender Octa… some of them are Range Rover SV customers, some of them are new to Defender, some of them have had other V8s and this is the natural step for them. But we’re also bringing people in.

“I think there will be an awful lot of people that this will be ultimately their daily drive because it’s just as practical as a normal Defender. Defenders, if you’ve spent any time in them, are ultimately practical: easy to see out of; nice and square; cameras so you can see all the corners, and you can pan the 360 camera around the exterior of the car. So it appeals to a broad church.

Land Rover Defender Octa drivng through a muddy stream

“We’ve sold two this morning on the stand that I’m aware of, and it’s not even midday. In fact, we had a week in the Cotswolds where we invited hot prospect customers and we more than a 100 per cent success rate, because they brought friends with them and their friends bought one as well.

Availability

“Despite the interest we’re not sold out yet and we didn’t expect to be. We’ve got 1,070 Octas split across slightly more than half Edition 1 and then the rest as standard Octa. We never expected to sell it out like we did with SV Edition 1 before we announced it.

If you were interested in this feature about the Land Rover Defender Octa’s Body and Soul seats, you might like to read up a bit more on the Octa’s features
Also check out our Range Rover Sport SV 2024 review
And don’t miss our Land Rover Defender 130 review. It’s the size that counts with this lengthened Landy, says James Fossdyke