A man who ordered more than 200 Land Rover Defenders months before production of the iconic British 4x4 ended in 2016 says he's turned millions in profit after selling almost all of them at a premium over the last decade.

But in an exclusive interview with This is Money and Mail Online, Charles Fawcett, founder of Yorkshire-based modifying company Twisted, claims Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) tried to block the move at every turn. 

Fawcett in 2015 made the astute decision to bulk-order a hoard of 'final run' Defenders knowing they would likely rocket in value once manufacturing came to a close and supply of the legendary off-roaders ran dry.

After placing a request for 240 vehicles, he eventually received 239 of the last examples to leave JLR's Solihull assembly line, despite the car maker's best efforts to prevent it. 

Having stored the vehicles in a barn while values rocketed, each Defender is tuned with the company's own parts, including refitting the interior to adding more comfortable suspension and chassis upgrades, before being sold at a premium.

In September 2022, the company announced the 'final' 16 vehicles from the haul would be sold at prices up to £222,000 - that's an 800 per cent mark-up on what they cost in 2015.

With his story becoming something of an automotive viral sensation, Charles sat down with us to detail exactly how the huge order took place, the way in which it has impacted his business and what JLR did to attempt to block the delivery from arriving at all.

And the story isn't over just yet: Charles exclusively revealed to This is Money that he still has a few 'brand new' Defenders bunkered away, describing them as 'better than money in the bank'.

How the order of 239 Defenders almost didn't happen

Talking to us about the monumental order, Fawcett said it almost didn't happen at all.

'JLR didn't want us to have them. We had to fight like hell to get the order,' he explained.

With the company at the time only selling renovated Defenders and knowing production was due to end in a matter of months, Charles says he wanted to buy enough stock to tide him over for at least four years. 

Having been tipped off by a dealer about the opportunity to place an order for some of the last-built Defenders in 2015, Fawcett discussed availability and pricing with someone from JLR. But the British company's tune soon changed.

'The guy from Land Rover called me one Friday and said if I didn't place the order that day we wouldn't get any because Land Rover was about to change its policy and not supply vehicles to modifiers like ourselves.

'I quickly fired over an email requesting 240 vehicles, asking if we could sort colours and specifications the following week, to which he replied 'thank you for an amazing order'.

'The most I had ordered new at one time before that was eight vehicles.' 

However, a meeting with JLR soon after revealed the car maker's reluctance to provide them. 

'JLR invited me to a meeting and said you're not getting any cars because there aren't any available.

'It all got a bit legal but eventually they agreed we could have them.'

And he claims that wasn't the end of the difficulties dealing with the British marque. 

After the first 120 vehicles were delivered, JLR introduced a number of stipulations about what would happen to the vehicles and how they would be marketed, including he says blocking Twisted from using the Defender name.

When This is Money raised this with the car maker, a spokesman told us: 'JLR takes active measures to protect its intellectual property.' 

Charles said that once these terms were agreed, the second half of the order arrived, but the delays meant they were not delivered until that summer.

'That really ended up benefiting us,' he explains. 

'It meant the final 120 or so that arrived were all registered six months after production had stopped in January 2016. This identified the vehicles among the last off the line and, arguably, more collectable.'

But Charles says the logistics of the deal were far from simple. 

'I didn't have any money when I placed that order in 2015. I borrowed every single penny from a great bank who was really up for doing cool, different stuff - and I had some private investment support to start with,' Charles told This is Money.

'At the time, the gross turnover for the company was £3.5million, so we were a tiny business. But we ended up ordering between £8million and £9million worth of vehicles.

'We also had nowhere to store 240 vehicles, so we had to scramble to find a suitable location to keep them locked away.'

And litigation battles with the British vehicle gisnt didn't end there.

In 2019, Charles won a trademark dispute with the British car maker, which had claimed in the Court of Appeal for England and Wales that a subsidiary business operating under Twisted had used the 'LR' name, which Jaguar Land Rover claimed was too similar to the firm's then abbreviated name, JLR, which has since become its rebranded identity.

Charles counterclaimed that the LR name had been registered as a trademark back in 2015 and JLR had never used the 'LR' tag as an official trading name.

The judge leading the case, Mrs Justice Rose, wrote after the hearing: 'The undisputed evidence was that Jaguar Land Rover has never used the initials 'LR' as a sign for its goods in this country.'

Following the court's decision, Fawcett declared it a victory against 'bullying tactics' before selling that business in 2021.

This case came around the same time that JLR was also embroiled in a legal battle with Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos Automotive regarding the latter's plan to sell its own utilitarian off-road vehicle as a spiritual successor to the then defunct Defender.

In August 2020, JLR also lost the court case to trademark the shape of the Defender, allowing Ineos to produce its Grenadier.

How much profit has he made from the Defenders?

In 2015, when the vehicles were ordered, each new Land Rover Defender should have cost between £26,000 to £33,000, depending on the model and specification, Fawcett recalls. 

However, he said he negotiated a 14.8 per cent discount on the 240 vehicles, paying around an average of £22,600 per Defender. 

While various reports across the internet have attempted to calculate the revenue generated from Charles' order of 239 motors, he says it is difficult to say exactly how much he made when factoring in the costs of upgrading them.

'We've sold around 210 and turned every single one into a Twisted vehicle. 

'Back in the early days of having them, we were selling at £60,000 to £100,000. Most now are £150,000 to £250,000, so we clearly have margin in there.

'However, a huge amount has been spent on development, R&D and production time. 

'I guess you could directly attribute £50million to £60million turnover that's been achieved off the back of them, probably more.'

Charles says that while Twisted would have still existed today it would have taken a 'somewhat different path' had it not been for the decision to bulk order the cars back in 2015.

Twisted has recently launched in both Japan and the US as well as diversifying into the world of boats with its Twisted Marine division. 

'That delivery, that commitment, has allowed us to totally transform the business,' he said.

Reflecting on the order, Charles says that in the grand scheme of global business where companies spend billions, it was a 'tiny little deal'. 

He added: 'We're just Land Rover enthusiasts in North Yorkshire who build cool stuff, have some amazing customers and just love what we do. 

'To be able to grab that delivery of vehicles was phenomenal for us as a tiny business. It's right up there with the best financial decision of my life.'

And he still has 25 'new' Defenders in storage... 

Having claimed the company has sold around 210 of the Defenders, we asked Charles about the outstanding models from the order.

And he confirms there are still some in storage, all of which have almost certainly soared in value. 

'I have some but I'm keeping them back for a collection of my own,' he told us.

'I might release the odd one here and there. We have a few special customers who we'd let have a brand new donor car. But the last dozen or so I will keep to myself. I think there's 25 left at the moment.

'We've stored them, serviced them, cleaned them, covered them; we've looked after these things for 10 years and now I'm kind of attached to them. They've always been around, you know?

'And in reality, they're better than money in the bank. 

'If I could have kept 120 or 150 of them I would have done because that opportunity was a once in a lifetime – you're not going to get that twice. All the stars aligned for us to get that order.'

The rising value of Land Rover Defenders

While Defender prices have soared since January 2016, Charles says trying to convince banks to lend him money to purchase a bulk order towards the end of its production - when a car would typically become a depreciating asset - was not easy.

'I don't know of any other run-of-the-mill vehicle that has ever gone up in value after production has ended,' he explained. 

'Supercars like Paganis, Bugattis and Ferraris are a different story because they're built in much smaller volumes, but your normal production vehicles all depreciate once manufacturing ends.

'I can't tell you how many banks I went to see to ask to be lent millions of pounds to buy a load of vehicles to put in a shed in the hope they would go up in value. It made no sense to most people at the time.'

Classic car experts say original Defenders are big business today, with collectors desperate to get their hands on them.

John Mayhead, editor of the Hagerty Price Guide, told This is Money: 'Original Land Rover Defenders have a huge place in the heart of many car enthusiasts, and this has translated into some big prices being spent on them in recent years. 

'The release of the 'Spectre' Land Rovers used in the Bond films onto the market increased visibility and demand for the model, peaking in 2018 when Bonhams sold one for £365,000 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale. 

'Demand from the US was also huge - Defenders were the most imported classic car models from UK to US until surpassed by the Nissan R33 Skyline GT-R in September 2023.'

However, John says Defender values have 'dropped significantly' since their peak. 

'A Spectre Land Rover is now worth around £150,000 to £175,000 and the last of the production models are worth around £100,000. 

'Royal Land Rovers are also in demand: Hagerty's Power List suggests that Royal ownership adds an average of 157 per cent to the value of any car. 

'Specially- modified cars by companies such as Twisted can have a build cost much higher than this, but these are generally built to order for very passionate enthusiasts who do it for love, not for financial gain, and resale values are likely to be less than the outlay.'

Twisted can still sell you a 'better than new' Defender... if you can afford one

With no new Defenders available, Twisted's automotive department now relies on sourcing existing vehicles to continue its modifying business.

However, Charles explains that so much work goes into upgrading them that they become 'better than new' once his team has completed each project.

Some 19 vehicles are currently listed on the Twisted website, many advertised as POA (price of application). The most expensive with a price confirmed is just under £200,000. 

'In our early days we would spend 200 to 300 hours adding our parts. But the builds we do now are between 1,200 to 2,000 hours per car as we are changing almost every single part. We therefore don't need an unused donor anymore and can instead buy something that's done some miles. 

'By the time we finish working on them, they're better than they were new,' Fawcett says.

'Now we just source them in the marketplace. I was recently offered two from a chap who had them in his shed since 2015 and they'd done 50 miles – so there are still some delivery mileage Defenders out there.'