Twisted Automotive takes two very different Defenders to The Bridge X

There are plenty of ways to build a Land Rover Defender, but Twisted Automotive has never really been interested in doing things the ordinary way.

The British bespoke automotive outfit, best known for taking classic Land Rover icons and turning them into seriously engineered, seriously expensive versions of themselves, is heading across the Atlantic for its first appearance at The Bridge X in Bridgehampton, New York, from September 18–20.

And it's bringing two rather special Defenders with it.

The star of the show will be a bespoke T110 finished in Hyperion Blue, a colour with some serious automotive history. The shade was traditionally associated with rare 1960s Ferraris and Maseratis, so putting it on the deliberately utilitarian, square-shouldered shape of a classic Defender is quite a departure.

It's also exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from Twisted.

"Taking a shade traditionally reserved for 1960s Italian supercars and draping it over a rugged, boxy British utility icon is unapologetically Twisted," says Phil Chapman, Twisted's Head of Brand.

That's probably fair. Twisted's whole approach is essentially to take something already desirable, strip it back to its bare bones and then rebuild it to a standard considerably beyond anything that left Solihull.

The Hyperion Blue T110 will be joined by another T110, this time finished in Stirling Moss Blue and destined for a US customer.

Both cars have been through the full Twisted treatment, with the company claiming around 2,500 hours of meticulous hand-built engineering going into each commission. The vehicles are stripped back to bare metal and rebuilt from the chassis upwards, with every nut, bolt and panel inspected, aligned and finished to what Twisted describes as factory-surpassing tolerances.

And these aren't just shiny Defenders for posing outside an expensive restaurant.

Both feature LT1 V8 power, giving the old-school Land Rover silhouette rather more shove than its original designers could ever have imagined.

For anyone attending The Bridge X who wants to get under the skin of the engineering rather than simply admire the paintwork, Twisted's UK master technicians will also be on hand to talk through the cars and explain what goes into creating one of the company's commissions.

There'll also be something rather interesting sitting alongside the two Defenders.

Twisted will display a detailed scale model of its forthcoming TRRC, its own interpretation of the Range Rover Classic. It's effectively a preview of the next big chapter in Twisted's expansion into the US market, ahead of the vehicle's American debut later in the year.

It's an interesting move for a company whose roots are firmly planted in British 4x4s. The US has never exactly suffered from a shortage of big, powerful and heavily modified off-road vehicles, but the combination of British heritage, bespoke engineering and a classic Land Rover shape clearly has plenty of appeal.

And if nothing else, a Hyperion Blue Defender parked amongst some of America's finest automotive exotica should make for an interesting sight.

The Bridge X takes place in Bridgehampton, New York, from September 18–20, 2026.