Steve Nelson visits a firm that transforms the humble Land Rover Defender into something very special

ON the farm where he grew up, Charlie Fawcett was behind the wheel of cars from the age of eight.

His father had been in the motor trade all his life and ran an off-roading business, which meant Charlie soon had access to all manner of vehicles.

“We drove them, pulled them apart... it was a great way to be brought up,” he recalls.

Charlie, 34, went on to join the family business in the hamlet of Warlaby, near Northallerton, and it was here that the germ of an idea was born.

“I was selling tuning products for Land Rovers, altering the fuelling to give them more power.

“We started selling tuning parts as a mail-order business running alongside the off-road business.”

Charlie’s sideline was soon to become a full-time business in 2008, leading to the creation of Twisted, an extraordinary venture that has blossomed into a successful enterprise creating bespoke versions of the Land Rover Defender, the archetypal farming workhorse.

“We found that people wanted other things beside tuning,” said Charlie, who now employs a dozen people at the firm’s premises on an industrial estate just south of Thirsk.

“We did tuning for the Discovery and Range Rover at first, but decided to go with the Defender.

“At first there was just me and another guy, but we quickly went up to five employees.”

“The beauty of the Defender is that you have a blank canvas, and it is a vehicle that is accepted everywhere.

“We have pitched ourselves at the customer who has a need for one. The Defender just seems to fit really well.

“We add a level of quality, but it still feels like a Defender.

“Our customers vary so much, but they all want something that is not off the shelf. No two Twisted cars are anything like each other.”

When I paid a visit to Twisted’s headquarters, the place was buzzing. Two staff were creating hand-stitched leather seats, two more were dealing with a string of phone calls and in the workshop four Defenders were getting the Twisted treatment – and that largely means creating vehicles to demanding specifications.

“We have just completed one, a standard 110 model, for a security business where image is everything. When it left us it had a wonderful stance,” Charlie said.

“One couple took three years to buy from us.

“The lady was extravagant and the car reflected this. For instance, the driver’s seat had to be in purple with green stitching.

“We have also just built two for a royal in Malaysia and they will be flown out to him.”

Charlie buys his “blank canvas” Defenders from a Land Rover dealership in Ripon. A standard Defender will cost between £17,000 and £30,000, and a typical Twisted treatment will virtually double the price tag. Some of the demanding specifications means a final bill in the region of £100,000.

It’s amazing what you can do with a Defender – climb hillsides, wade through rivers, cross deserts – and what Twisted does with them is equally amazing.

One customer had a shower fitted, another wanted a gun cupboard, there are requests for fridges and one client wanted a safe installed. Then there was the intriguing request for the bodywork to be in French Foreign Legion camouflage colours with a chainsaw fitted in the rear. All had their wishes granted.

“Very few customers come in and say ‘I want this spec’.

“They usually say they want to do something and want to know how to do it,” Charlie said.

However, Twisted does offer three special editions – French, Alpine and Retro – with either a short or long wheelbase. Each can be specified with engine upgrades to more than 200bhp, alongside enhancements such as automatic transmission, brake upgrades, modified suspension and unique leather interior.

Part-exchanges offered have included a Porsche 911, Audi RS5 and BMW M3 – all from customers who found that their pride and joy no longer fitted in with their lifestyle needs.

Key to Twisted’s success story, which has seen year-on-year growth by as much as 100 per cent – is the attention to detail and a reputation for excellent service.

In one case that meant travelling to Switzerland for Charlie to help a client whose Defender had a broken bracket. Charlie said: “It was the sort of thing that would never break, but this one did and the guy had given us a lot of business.

“We are building a name for service and I decided I had to go and help him out.”.

These days, Charlie gets very few opportunities to get his hands dirty – “the guys in the workshop won’t let me” – and is concentrating on promoting the brand and overseeing the operation.

“I like to get involved in product development. I am the ideas guy and I use experts to create. We did a lot of branding work and that has paid off.”

Charlie enlisted the services of a branding expert, Phil Chapman – “he is a magician” – to raise the company’s profile.

“Everything he said would happen has happened,” Charlie said, casting an eye towards a piece of branding with the words “Think The Unthinkable” emblazoned across the top.

About a third of the business comes from full projects on new Defenders, with the remainder split between work on second-hand vehicles and power upgrades.

Gorgeous leather seating in the Recaro style together with leather dashboard and centre console, soundproofing, LED headlights and a top-notch audio system are regular requirements, but the detailing goes much further than that. Only the paint-spraying is outsourced to other companies.

“There are people wanting some pretty exotic stuff,” said Charlie, recalling how for one client that meant installing a 7.3-litre V8 engine and how another customer wanted special features, including a ramp, for his dog.

“It was stunning. Everything about the vehicle was for the dog – things that its owner thought would suit the dog,” Charlie said.

Twisted is gaining a national reputation for its products and services, recently helping out with a tuning upgrade for a fleet of Defenders being used in the next James Bond film and being asked to submit product specifications for another blockbuster, Thor 2.

“Defenders are cool. We are not making them cool,” Charlie remarked, introducing me to his own vehicle, a canvas-roofed TD5 Defender which won a national competition to find the fastest Land Rover three years ago. It’s pretty cool.