The last classic Land Rover Defender pickup truck rolled off the assembly line in January 2016, but Urban Automotive has revealed a modern interpretation of a Defender pickup truck at this weekend’s 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The annual car fest and hill climb south of London marks the global debut of the Urban Widetrack Avontur luxury lifestyle utility vehicle.
That’s quite a mouthful of a name, but the pictures should tell you what’s actually happening here. This is a prototype pickup based on the four-door Defender 110 Hard Top Commercial.
An Unexpectedly Cool Street Truck
Looking straight on at the Avontur, it’s a challenge to recognize anything out of the ordinary, except the modified hood and the word “URBAN” between the headlamps. But stroll around to the side, and the Widetrack Avontur is a Land Rover like you’ve never seen before. It’s lower to the ground, riding on bespoke rims with low-profile tires, and has a much lower roofline.
We also see the biggest change made by the folks at Urban Automotive. They removed the second-row doors, the back seat, and replaced it all with a pickup bed. And of course there’s a spare tire attached to the tailgate.
More Expensive Than A Slate
Urban Managing Director Matthew Welch wanted the new Widetrack Avontur to be luxurious, with genuine real-world practicality, looking like it belongs in Monaco, at a private marina, or on a country estate. Given the boutique automaker’s name, how about the big city?
Welch also wanted the Widetrack Avontur, with its premium carbon-fiber craftsmanship, modular utility rail system, and fully exposed carbon-fiber bed, to signal the next chapter of Urban’s growth. In other words, it’s pretty much the anti-Slate truck. Still a two-door with a bed and truck functionality, but decidedly optioned up.
“That balance of luxury, capability, and individuality is what makes it so special.”
–Urban Managing Director Matthew Welch
In transforming the four-door Defender into a two-door luxury utility vehicle, the Urban engineering team needed to ensure its strength. What they came up with was a structural framework with an integrated rollover structure specifically designed for the vehicle to maintain its refinement and driving characteristics. The Avontur carries more than 36 bespoke components, including a carbon-fiber hood and side trim, embossed UA logo in the bed floor, and an integrated bottle holder within the tailgate.
But, you can expect to pay more than $200,000 if you commission Urban to build you an Avontur in Forged Carbon, Urban 2×2 Carbon Fibre, or Urban 4×4 Carbon Fibre, with both gloss and matt lacquer finishes available. So yeah, it’s definitely the anti-Slate.
10 Years At Goodwood, More Brands On Display
This is the 10th year Urban has visited the Goodwood hill, and this year’s rollout includes new styling for the Land Rover Defender OCTA as well as the latest Urban Widetrack modifications for the Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II, Lamborghini Urus SE, Mercedes-Benz G-Class, and Urban x Visionnaire Range Rover Autobiography.
Urban’s exclusive Defender OCTA Styling Program introduces a raft of newly developed components, including carbon-fiber front canards, center grille overlay, side vents, wheel arch extensions, rear spoiler and exhaust surrounds. The replacement carbon-fiber hood also gets integrated vent detailing, while the bespoke spare wheel cover also gets carbon-fiber inserts.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Urban Automotive has been around since only 2014, but it has carved a specific niche, first dedicated to reinterpreting the Land Rover Defender but now expanding to other models and other brands. It takes a lot of engineering – not to mention the blessing required from Land Rover – to pull off this work seamlessly, like a custom builder attached directly to a major automaker.
But the company continues adding projects and drawing attention at events like Goodwood – and apparently finding customers willing to spend well into six-figure territory for something different.
