The Ineos Grenadier is a car born out of a sheer passion for the Land Rover Defender, and just because Land Rover has let go of the old shape, it doesn't mean the shape should be lost to time. The automotive division of the Ineos chemical company has taken it upon itself to revive this iconic look while adding a large number of modern tech advancements that bring the Ineos Grenadier up to 21st century standards. Now in a video released by Ineos Automotive, we get a sneak peek into the engine and transmission choices for this big brute.

Early Grenadier prototypes called 2A are being used to specially calibrate gasoline and diesel variants of the much-loved BMW 3.0-liter straight six engine. Head of engine tuning George Fukes says of the Grenadier's powerplant: "We know we can count on these BMW engines to meet emission standards, and we know we can adapt these engines to be successfully used in the Grenadier project. The most important thing is to have a high amount of torque at low engine revs. It has taken two to three years of calibration tests to get these engines where they are right now."

The team at Ineos has driven the Grenadier over 1.8 million kilometers (1,118,468 miles) for testing purposes.

The transmission that does duty in the Grenadier will unfortunately not be a manual as Job Zwollo, engineer project manager at Ineos Automotive explains. "Auto transmissions offer the full suite of functionality for both experienced and inexperienced drivers."

The transmissions in use are ZF8 HPs, which are eight-speed boxes with electronically controlled torque converters. These transmissions are considered best in class by many journalists and owners alike. They have a manual mode and are connected to a custom-designed transfer case that is permanently stuck in AWD mode and features manually selectable low and high range gearing.

Ineos will be building 100 full vehicle prototypes for further testing before releasing them into the wild.