New Valiance Convertible Land Rover

Heritage Customs Reveals Valiance Defender Convertible

Heritage Customs announce Valiance, a customised made-to-order convertible Land Rover. Automotive designer Niels van Roij has put his name to some rather stunning looking vehicles in the past, like the Silver Spectre Shooting Brake and the one-off Ferrari Breadvan Hommage.

He is also co-owner of Heritage Customs, an offshoot of Niels van Roij Design.

Netherlands-based Heritage Customs has made a bit of a name for itself for customising the Land Rover Defender, and now Niels has come up with a Defender Convertible SUV just in time for summer.

Custom Convertible Land Rover Defender

It’s been a couple of years since Heritage Customs showed us that a convertible Defender was in the early planning stages when in December 2021, we saw the reveal of an idea for a Niels van Roij Design drop-top Defender.

It was still a fledgling idea in CAD and sketch form, and that’s how it stayed – until now.

The idea stuck around and now Niels has introduced a Defender 90 convertible conversion, the Valiance Convertible. It must make Land Rover wonder why they never pursued such an option, as it doesn’t look half bad.

Looking at past projects, it’s safe to say that Niels and team have a firm grip on taste – it seems that while their creations are certainly striking, most of what gets pursued beyond the sketchpad turns out looking pretty good, and the Defender convertible is not planning to buck that trend.

In theory of course, a convertible or sunroof cut-out is pretty straightforward; I had a classic Beetle professionally converted to a ragtop in an afternoon around 20 years ago by Beetles UK in Bristol and the result was fantastic.

A full convertible is a bit more complex though, as taking away part of a vehicle’s overall self-support is going to introduce unwanted flex.

Traditionally, this has been offset by strengthening the sills on each side to maintain rigidity and similarly, the Valiance Convertible will require its own reinforcements during the process.

Each Defender Valiance Convertible will be a one-off coachbuilt vehicle created per customer commission – currently, 5 are expected to be built.

The fabric roof is semi-electric and each will be sympathetically colour-paired to the choice of body colour.

Valiance Made-To-Order Convertible Range Rover

A convertible yes but the roof doesn’t exactly fold away, then again there isn’t much space to allow it do so; so we end up with a rather retro feel with the roof down – a design that historically has not been great for rear visibility – and something that reminds me of a wildlife safari vehicle with the roof up.

The roof isn’t the only part of the package, as Heritage Customs will completely strip each vehicle and give it a custom paint job in what the website intriguingly call ‘special paint’.

The same options are available as with the regular Valiance, so you can choose retro-style forged alloys, bucket seats and various unique trim options.

The interior gets an overhaul too.

The Heritage Customs Defender Valiance Convertible will surely divide opinion within a Land Rover fanbase that has proved to be very diehard and not shy of expressing opinions over the years.

Personally, I like it – though with some misgivings about that inability to completely fold the roof away.

Pricing is hard to gauge as each Valiance Convertible will be a bespoke conversion tailored to its owner’s specifications, but Heritage Customs says that if this is something that might interest you, then you would be looking at a ballpark figure of around 85,000 euros (currently around £74,000).

Images: heritagecustoms.nl