Ten Years On: Revisiting the Flying Huntsman 6x6 Pickup
Oct 15, 2026

A decade has passed since the Flying Huntsman 6x6 Pickup made its international debut at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. Ten years on, the car is easier to judge. The KAHN® Group looks back at how it came about, what it set out to do, and why it still stands apart from everything that has followed.

A Defender That Refused to Say Goodbye

The timing of the car’s arrival was part of its story. When the last classic Defender left the line at Solihull in January 2016, after nearly seven decades of production, the general mood was one of farewell.

The Flying Huntsman team within the KAHN® Group took a different view. They saw a platform with a great deal of life left in it, and a chance to ask how far a vehicle so familiar could be taken.

The Geneva Debut

Geneva, only weeks after production of the last Defender, was their answer. The 6x6 stretched the Defender by 880mm, widened it by 150mm and added a third axle. The result was a double-cab, five-seat pickup with genuine six-wheel-drive capability. Ten were planned. Ten were built.

The Brief: Presence Over Practicality

The brief had been deliberately loose. The car should go where it had no need to go, be the most imposing Defender on the road, and be the easiest to live with from the driver’s seat. Presence and craft mattered more than practicality.

Hand-Built in Britain

That clarity of purpose is visible in how the car was made. More than forty designers, engineers and craftsmen worked on it in Britain. The extended bodywork was formed by hand in hammer-formed aluminium, and the widebody finished in bespoke composite panels.

Widetrack Heritage

The wide wings grew out of the Defender Widetrack programme from Chelsea Truck Company, redesigned to accommodate the additional axle.

Design Decisions That Have Aged Well

Looking back, the design decisions have settled well.

The X-Lander Grille

A tall, upright vehicle can lose its stance. The X-Lander grille, a KAHN® staple for longer than Chelsea Truck Company has existed, gave the 6x6 a wider and lower look than its height should have allowed. It has since proved its worth beyond this one car and is now available for standard Defenders as well.

Volcanic Rock Paint

The Volcanic Rock paint is a flat grey named for basalt, with the faintest magenta tone beneath. It still reads as serious rather than showy.

1945 Retro Alloys and Crosshair Exhaust

The 18-inch 1945 Retro Alloys, with a fine red pinstripe tracing every rim, and the twin crosshair exhaust carried the car’s military character without tipping into costume.

Performance and Interior

V8 Power and Six-Wheel Drive

Beneath the bonnet, a 6.2 litre General Motors LS3 V8 delivers 430hp and 425 lb-ft of torque through a six-speed gearbox. Both rear axles are driven at all times, with the front wheels joining when 6x6 mode is selected.

A Bespoke Leather Cabin

Inside, leather runs from the floor mats to the headliner. The launch car was trimmed in deep red to answer the pinstripes on its wheels. It was a cabin made to the owner’s taste in every inch, completed by a bespoke steering wheel and commemorative plaques.

The Decade Since

The decade since has been kind to the idea behind the car. Classic Defender values have risen steadily, and the end of production now looks less like a closing chapter than the start of a collectors’ market.

Unmatched by the New Defender

The arrival of the L663 Defender has changed the landscape again. Yet nothing in the current line-up comes close to what the 6x6 offers in scale, presence and mechanical ambition.

Where the Ten Cars Are Now

The ten cars have found homes in the far corners of the globe and, as far as the KAHN® Group is aware, all remain with their owners. One stays in the personal collection of Afzal Kahn, KAHN® Group CEO. The 6x6 also earned a chapter in Ben Fogle’s Land Rover: The Story of the Car That Conquered the World, in which the presenter and adventurer drove it across the Scottish Highlands to Islay, the island where Spencer Wilks tested the earliest Land Rover prototypes, and described Afzal Kahn’s Defenders as “the robocops of the Land Rover world”.

Afzal Kahn on the 6x6

“Ten years is long enough to know whether something was a good idea or just a loud one,” said Afzal Kahn. “The 6x6 has held its ground. When we built it, we were told the Defender’s story was over, and I never believed that. Seeing how these cars have been looked after, and how the Defender itself has gone on to be valued, tells me we were right to carry on.”

The Flying Huntsman Family

The Flying Huntsman 6X6 PICKUP sits within a family that includes the Flying Huntsman 6X6 LONGNOSE  and the 6X6 CIVILIAN CARRIER. All are built on the same belief: the Defender still has chapters left to write.

One of the first 6x6 Pickups is exclusively available to view online at Kahn Automobiles.

 

MORE >