Lando Norris has a convertible Land Rover Defender with a pizza oven
- Lando Norris has just had a new car delivered to his home in Monaco
- It’s a renovated Land Rover Defender
- The car features a McLaren-inspired paint job, custom badges, and a fully functioning pizza oven
Published on Jun 18, 2024 at 7:00 PM (UTC+4)
by Andie Reeves
Last updated on Jun 19, 2024 at 5:47 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
The latest car to roll into the garage of Lando Norris is anything but ordinary.
But no, it’s not a spectacular hypercar, as you might expect.
It’s a convertible Land Rover Defender, customized specially for the racer.
The car has no roof while its back houses a fully functioning pizza oven.
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The team at Retro Automotive spent 1,000 hours restoring this Land Rover Defender 90.
Lando Norris requested for it to be completely roofless, feature a McLaren-inspired paint job, and – most importantly – enable him to make oven-baked pizza on the go.
It was delivered straight to his home in Monaco, where he will be using it as his daily driver.
The challenge of customizing a car for Lando Norris
It’s no easy feat to design a car for a Formula 1 racer.
Norris already has an awe-inspiring car collection, which includes four McLaren supercars.
Perhaps most surprisingly, he actually hates driving when it’s not on the race track.
Maybe he’ll change his mind now that he’s got his dream Land Rover.
Retro Automotive only builds 15 vehicles a year, working closely with customers to ensure they get exactly what they want.
Norris wanted his to not only be convertible but he wanted it to have no roof whatsoever, with no canvas roof or roll cage either.
“He was clear that he wanted the car to be completely topless, without any form of roof or sticks,” Ben Davies, director of Retro Automotive, said.
“Customers normally want some form of roof on it, so this really enhanced the individuality of the creation.”
The paint job is also bespoke, a pearlescent shade of Nardo Grey that is reminiscent of McLaren’s supercars, while its interior is upholstered with Muirhead Egyptian Blue leather.
Giving an icon a retro upgrade
The Land Rover Defender’s boxy shape and off-road abilities have made it an icon of the roads since 1948.
Norris decided he wanted a customized one after seeing Retro Automotive’s work on social media.
The team started by stripping a donor car to bare metal and giving it a full restoration before beginning the conversion job.
Bigger brakes were fitted, the steering was reconditioned, and the cooling system was updated too.
His Defender has two seats in the front and two bench seats in the back, where the portable pizza oven by Ooni is kept.
Under the hood is a 3.9-liter V8 engine, which works alongside a manual gearbox rebuilt by Hobsons Industries.
The Defender has adjustable suspension, able to ride low on the road and be raised for off-road adventures.
It was also kitted out with a Marshall Kilburn II cubby speaker system and modern LED lighting units.
The finishing touch of his Land Rover was a set of 3D-printed ‘Lando Norris’ badges, one of which was placed in the steering wheel.
A huge missed opportunity not to have them read ‘Landy Norris,’ in our opinion.
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Andie is a content writer from South Africa with a background in broadcasting and journalism. Starting her career in the glossy pages of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, Andie has a broad portfolio, covering everything from sustainability solutions to celebrity car collections. When not at her laptop Andie can be found sewing, recording her podcast, taking board games too seriously or road-tripping in her bright green Kia.
