Land Rover Discontinued Steel Wheels, but You Might Not Notice

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The Defender is no longer available with steel wheels, but the Type 9013 aluminum wheels are a pretty convincing facsimile.

We love steel wheels. They're rugged, they're basic, and they look cool. Steel wheels are so universally revered that the Rolling Stones even dedicated a whole album to them. So we should be devastated that 18-inch steel wheels are no longer available on the Land Rover Defender. But we're not, because they've replaced them with something even better: aluminum wheels that look like steel wheels.

Land Rover's Type 9013 20-inch aluminum wheel is now in production as part of the $5950 County exterior pack, which also includes snazzy two-tone white-and-Tasman-Blue paint and is not to be confused with the Country pack, because that's totally different. The Type 9013 addresses the main drawback of the steel wheels—and we're not talking about vulnerability to thieves armed with powerful wheel-grabbing magnets, although that's certainly a potential liability when one's wheels are chock full o' ferrous metal. Nope, we're talking about weight, because steel wheels are heavy. Rover only offered the Defender's steelies in the 18-inch size because if they were any bigger they'd have the rotational inertia of Pluto. (And also because smaller wheels with more tire sidewall suit the steelie gestalt, but more the first thing.)

To find out what kind of difference this makes, we asked Land Rover to weigh an example of each wheel, meaning an 18-inch steel one as seen on the UN-spec Defenders, and a 20-inch Type 9013 as will be seen on various beaches on Cape Cod from now on.

The results: The steel wheel came in at 39.85 pounds and the 20-inch aluminum stunt double tipped the scales at 31.96 pounds. So, call it about an eight-pound difference per corner, which is more than enough to effect a noticeable improvement in vehicle dynamics. This is why you don't see a lot of steel airplanes.

Land Rover, besides measuring to the hundredth of a pound, also pointed out that the Type 9013s could be even a bit lighter without the white paint they wear in the name of steelie cosplay. But that wouldn't be any fun.

So next time you see a Defender and think, "Nice steelies!" think again. Because the Type 9013 is the new Designer Imposter, driving light but looking heavy.

Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He's now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.

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