Built in honor of my father.
Every March, in celebration of my father’s birthday, I build a Helderburg in his honor. Raleigh is this year’s build. The color is custom-mixed and will not be repeated. The engraving took three hundred hours by hand. The story is personal.
My father loved everything English. He had a Raleigh three-speed bicycle in Chicago when I was a child. He would put me in the seat on the back of it and ride me across the cobblestones. The seat was diamond-stitched, with very little padding, on a piece of plywood. It was brutal. I remember it like it was yesterday.
That bicycle was three colors. A dark metallic brown. A creamy white. And this green. The Metallic Bronze-Green on Raleigh picks up those tones. It looks black until the sun catches it. Then the green appears. Then the bronze. Then the green again. It is not a color you have seen on a Defender. After Raleigh leaves, you will not see it again.
The interior is brown over black, two-tone Scottish leather, butterscotch contrast stitching, diamond pattern. It feels like an English library. It feels like a cigar bar. It feels like the kind of room my father would have walked into and quietly approved of.
And then there is the engraving. Three hundred hours by Edward Ashcomb, a master engraver from the world of English shotguns. The door handles. The window cranks. The top vents. The center cap on the steering wheel. Every visible metal element of the cabin carries his hand. This is the most extensively engraved Helderburg we have ever built.
Raleigh is a celebration for my dad. If it wasn’t for him, I really don’t think Helderburg would have ever happened. Paul Potratz · Founder
- Model Defender 110
- Color Metallic Bronze-Green, signature color
- Status Not for Sale
- Drivetrain Mark III.5 Turbo Diesel, Stage 2 Performance Tune Original block, re-engineered with proprietary internals. Stage 2 tune delivers a torque curve and analog character no V8 can replicate.
- Transmission Five-Speed Manual For the driver who wants the truck under their hand, not their foot.
- Suspension VectorLine Helderburg’s proprietary suspension. Composed at highway speed. Flat through on-ramps and off-ramps. Capable across any terrain.
- Brakes Aegis, Red Anodized Sized to the rebuilt powertrain and the way the vehicle is actually driven. Red anodized calipers visible through the beadlocker wheels.
- Wheels & Tires Beadlocker, 35 by 12.50 True beadlock, not decorative. Aggressive stance achieved through chassis widening, never through spacers.
- Paint Custom Metallic Bronze-Green Three-stage paint process, hand-mixed by eye. Every panel painted separately, then re-assembled. Color retired after delivery.
- Cabin Two-Tone Scottish Leather, Diamond Stitched Brown over black, butterscotch contrast stitching. Tanned to order. Italian Alcantara in dark chocolate across the headliner.
- Roof Single Panoramic Glass Dual-pane, gas-filled, tinted. Brightens the cabin without overheating it.
- Audio Bespoke Audio System Speakers handmade in France, some made exclusively for Helderburg. Amplifiers handmade in Italy. Tuned to the cabin geometry. All wiring soldered.
- Lighting RadiantCore Headlights, Lustra Ambience In-house headlight design. Lustra ambient cabin lighting in selectable warm or red, all zones.
- Gauges Chronos, Engraved Bezels Smith of the UK, commissioned for Helderburg. Analog faces, LED-backlit. Bezels hand-engraved by Edward Ashcomb for Raleigh specifically.
- Engraving Complete Custom, by Edward Ashcomb Three hundred hours by hand. Door handles, window cranks, top vents, gauge bezels, steering wheel center cap, threshold details. Not repeatable.
Every line above is the result of upgrades engineered in-house, found in no other custom or restomod Defender in the world.
See Helderburg's Proprietary Upgrades
