On Location in White Sands

In the world of cars, there are few vehicles as iconic as the Land Rover Defender 110. In 2016, Heritage Driven was founded on the premise of restoring and modifying these beloved cars. Always on the hunt for new toys to display in AETHERla, we decided to visit Heritage Driven at their headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to pick up a custom Defender to showcase in the store this past spring. The company takes the cars, strips them down to the frame and then replaces, refurbishes, and upgrades the parts to meet the client’s requests, often taking four to six months to complete and costing north of $100,000. ↓

Land Rover Defender 110

We picked up a custom 1986 Overland Defender and drove a few hours to a spot we’ve always wanted to explore, White Sands National Park in New Mexico. The epic landscape of white sand dunes stretches over 275 miles of desert, making it the perfect scenic detour to get to know the car. ↓

We spent the night nearby, getting up at dawn to capture the stark white sand and rolling scapes under the very-early morning light. After capturing the expansive sand scenery for a few hours in the surprisingly cold temperatures of January, we headed to Tucson to camp for the night before making the rest of the trek home to LA. While the Land Rover is no longer on display at our AETHERla store, it is currently for sale for $232,000. Contact heritagedriven.com with inquiries. •