Charles Fawcett spent over £8 million on hundreds of discontinued Defenders back in 2015
When Charles Fawcett bought over 200 Land Rover Defenders in 2015, everyone thought he’d gone mad.
A decade on, and with a fair bit of hindsight, you could say it was one of the best decisions he’s ever made.
The Defenders were the very last in line, following Land Rover’s bombshell decision to discontinue the iconic model after almost 70 years.
But while other Defender devotees were in mourning, Charles saw an opportunity he couldn’t ignore.
As the vehicles rolled off the production line for the very last time, he made a decision. He would buy 240 of the cult cars to modify and sell through his automotive company Twisted.
The North Yorkshire-based business was set up in 2000 and customises, modifies and ‘twists’ around 100 Defenders every year.
Unsurprisingly, for Charles, agreeing to shed out over £8 million on hundreds of discontinued cars was the biggest gamble of his career. And there was one huge problem – he didn’t even have the cash to buy them.
Yet, challenges aside, he’d clearly tapped into something magic, because almost 10 years on and the beloved Defenders are selling for hundreds of thousands of pounds from his showroom in Thirsk.
And the people driving them? Charles won’t spill on his A-list clients (and there are a few of them) but let’s just say at least one of them would be on your dream dinner party list.
Despite the rather expensive gamble paying off in the end, it wasn’t an easy process.
In fact, even placing the order with Land Rover was filled with complexities, with Charles claiming that when he tried to secure the 240 vehicles, he faced some pretty big obstacles.
After much back and forth, Land Rover agreed to the huge order, which meant Charles had to scramble to raise the cash.
This included setting up a funding line which required the business build, assemble and sell six vehicles per month for the first year.
Explaining how it went down at the time, Charles explained that he was simply looking for stock when he heard the news that Land Rover were discontinuing the Defender.
He told LADbible: “Land Rover are very protective of their brand, they didn’t want people taking the product, changing it and making money off it.
“When I placed the order, what I didn’t tell [Land Rover] was that I had no money to pay for them and I didn’t have anywhere to put them.
“So when we finally got them to agree [to the sale], we had to scurry around and find the money. We had to borrow every single penny of that money and we had to pay back every single penny of that money back.
“Everyone thought we were nuts. But, I always felt it was a good investment and I always knew there was a get out if I needed it.
“These vehicles would always sell even if they sold for what they cost me.”
Spending millions of pounds on hundreds of discontinued cars might sound to some like a massive gamble at best and a huge, life-changing mistake at worst.
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But when you break down the numbers, it’s certainly paid off.
“History has proven that an outgoing model in the automative sector always depreciates quickly. We believed it would appreciate and we needed it to,” Charles continued.
“I negotiated a 14.8 percent discount of 240 vehicles that had a retail of around £30,000, so I probably paid £22,600 per vehicle.
“We sold them at the beginning for £70,000-£90,000, but now we’re selling them between £180,00-£320,000.
“The bit that gets missed in the middle is that we also put 1,500 hours into every single build. That’s 1,500 hours of labour using parts, components and processes developed over 25 years.
“It really is an extraordinary level of craftsmanship and attention to detail that justifies the premium price point, but it was still a huge risk. Ultimately, we build something no one needs but the desire for it is huge.
“Having that stock of vehicles has enabled the business to grow over the nine year period since production ended and in those nine years we will have turned well over in excess of £50 million. Without those core vehicles I suspect the business would look quite different.
“We are down to the last 25 now, I will be sad to see them go, but I’m going to keep some for myself.”
Taking a gamble on the Defenders wasn’t just about the potential financial benefits, though, with Charles admitting he quite enjoys making decisions that most people would describe as a ‘bad idea’.
“A number of times through my journey with Twisted I’ve had people advise me not to do things, or tell me something’s a bad idea,” he said.
“I have to be honest, it makes me want to do it more. If someone says ‘no’ it’s like red rag really, at any of these points in the past I had nothing to lose so why would I not try something?”
Ever the determined, Charles even managed to convert Jeremy Clarkson, who notoriously hates the Defender.
After sending the journalist one of his Twisted vehicles to review, Charles came up with the idea of asking his seven-year-old daughter to write Clarkson a letter asking him to ‘look after my daddy’s car’.
The ’emotional blackmail’ – as Clarkson put it – paid off.
“Molly, all is well. Even though it started out in life as a Land Rover, which I hate as much as I bet you hate some of your teachers, I did like your dad’s car,” Clarkson wrote in the Times review back in 2018.
Alongside expanding the business into the marine industry – and launching Twisted Marine in 2020 – Charles’ next goal is to modify one of the remaining Defenders to a retail price of half a million.
For the price tag, it has to be ‘exquisite’, featuring all of the most beautiful Twisted mod-cons.
But of course, it’s not just the fancy features that make the Twisted Defenders so appealing.
They still have the heart and soul of an OG Defender, with Charles pointing out that ‘sometimes you just want to hear the indicator click, feel the gear change and pull on a notchy hand brake’.
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