The Underpowered Hour

Steve Beres and Ike Goss open the Underpowered Hour with Land Rover news, including a UK pastor caught using a cellphone while driving who avoids disqualification by arguing his congregation would suffer without him, and JLR’s CEO signaling renewed investment in the struggling Discovery—alongside discussion of Discovery’s dog-focused “Pet Pack” accessories. They’re then joined by Rebelle Rally team sponsors Aaron and Jasper of ModPro AI, who share their automotive backgrounds and the origin of their app after spending heavily to modestly increase power on a Subaru WRX. They explain ModPro AI’s enthusiast community, digital garage, social features, and AI advisor that aggregates data and provides recommendations with a confidence meter, plus upcoming agentic AI improvements and plans for business profiles and groups. The guests recount touring Jay Leno’s collection, seeing a Pantera, and witnessing delivery of a Leopard tank.

Steve Beres and Ike Goss kick off the Underpowered Hour by reacting to a Range Rover SV Ultra (and “Ultra Mega”) promo highlighting a 21-speaker electrostatic sound system, haptic “sensory floor,” and wellness modes that spark jokes about cost, recalls, and a 4D in-car experience. They then discuss conflicting Jaguar Land Rover financial headlines, including profits reportedly down 99% due to warranty costs tied to a 170,000-vehicle recall, cyber attacks, Middle East war impacts, and tariffs, though the loss “beat expectations.” Next, they cover the UK Ministry of Defense seeking a classic Defender replacement, with potential bids from Land Rover, the Ineos Grenadier, and other manufacturers, plus rumors of a smaller Ineos EV partnership tied to Chery and the name “Fusilier.” Ike recaps attending Oregon’s Rover Rendezvous in a 1957 Series I 107 station wagon, including minor repairs and a failed voltage regulator, and they close with upcoming guests and Steve’s excitement about a Dutch Bros opening in Valencia.

00:00 Show Intro and Hosts

01:20 SV Ultra Mega Tease

02:59 Electrostatic Audio Demo

05:22 Wellness Modes Mockups

07:50 4D Haptics and Price Jokes

09:12 JLR Profits and Recalls

11:04 MOD Defender Replacement Race

13:28 Military Needs vs New Defender

14:32 Who Will Build It

15:07 Tiny Grenadier Rumors

16:18 Chery Partnership Speculation

17:08 Fusilier Name Reveal

18:12 Tranquility Mode Banter

18:47 Oregon Rover Rendezvous

19:55 107 Wagon Road Trip Fixes

20:59 Event Trucks and Activities

21:53 Anarch 80th Planning

22:47 JB Weld Head Gasket Saga

24:14 Bad Repairs Philosophy

25:29 Next Week and Dutch Bros

27:03 Signing Off

Steve Beres hosts The Underpowered Hour with Ike Goss, joined by Linus Tremaine and Jenna Fribley (with Liza Beres present), covering news and an event recap. They discuss Warn’s updated 8274 winch now rated to 10,000 lbs, joking about special editions and waterproof claims, and mention a restored 1967 Fiat Ferves Ranger listed for $48,000. The main story is Pangolin 4x4’s nine-day drive to the Mendo Recce gathering at Salmon Creek Ranch in Bodega Bay, including visits with Land Rover enthusiasts Terry Ann Wakeman and Tom Charters. At the event, their Series 1 “Cow” loses power and is found to have a head gasket blown between cylinders three and four; with help from friends, they attempt a field repair using fine copper wire and JB Weld, successfully get it running, and immediately test it on the trails while reacting to viral comments on Jenna’s video and hoping to get MacGyver’s Richard Dean Anderson to see it.

00:00 Show intro and crew

01:29 Warn  8274 gets beefier

04:30 Waterproofing and service debate

06:10 Fiat Ferves Ranger listing

08:21 Heading to Mendo Recce

09:18 Visiting Terry Ann Wakeman

13:03 Tom Charters stop and Highway 1

17:52 Arriving at Salmon Creek Ranch

19:43 Trail prep and tire chains

21:26 80-inch loses power

24:12 Field diagnosis head gasket

26:14 Camp Breakdown Drama

26:41 Diagnosing Blown Gasket

28:47 Copper Wire Bodge Plan

31:45 JB Weld Overnight Cure

33:43 Morning Start And Misfire

36:48 Trail Test And Recovery

38:48 Jeremy Stories And Turkey

40:07 Viral Reel And Merch Ideas

43:54 Mean Comments Readback

48:12 MacGyver Reaction Quest

50:26 Wrap Up And Next Time

Steve Beres hosts The Underpowered Hour with Ike Goss, joined by Linus Tremaine and Jenna Fribley (with Liza Beres present), covering news and an event recap. They discuss Warn’s updated 8274 winch now rated to 10,000 lbs, joking about special editions and waterproof claims, and mention a restored 1967 Fiat Ferves Ranger listed for $48,000. The main story is Pangolin 4x4’s nine-day drive to the Mendo Recce gathering at Salmon Creek Ranch in Bodega Bay, including visits with Land Rover enthusiasts Terry Ann Wakeman and Tom Charters. At the event, their Series 1 “Cow” loses power and is found to have a head gasket blown between cylinders three and four; with help from friends, they attempt a field repair using fine copper wire and JB Weld, successfully get it running, and immediately test it on the trails while reacting to viral comments on Jenna’s video and hoping to get MacGyver’s Richard Dean Anderson to see it.

00:00 Show intro and crew

01:29 Warn  8274 gets beefier

04:30 Waterproofing and service debate

06:10 Fiat Ferves Ranger listing

08:21 Heading to Mendo Recce

09:18 Visiting Terry Ann Wakeman

13:03 Tom Charters stop and Highway 1

17:52 Arriving at Salmon Creek Ranch

19:43 Trail prep and tire chains

21:26 80-inch loses power

24:12 Field diagnosis head gasket

26:14 Camp Breakdown Drama

26:41 Diagnosing Blown Gasket

28:47 Copper Wire Bodge Plan

31:45 JB Weld Overnight Cure

33:43 Morning Start And Misfire

36:48 Trail Test And Recovery

38:48 Jeremy Stories And Turkey

40:07 Viral Reel And Merch Ideas

43:54 Mean Comments Readback

48:12 MacGyver Reaction Quest

50:26 Wrap Up And Next Time

Steve Beres and Ike Goss welcome listeners to The Underpowered Hour, share two major Jaguar Land Rover safety recalls (a widespread DC-to-DC converter issue that can cut drivetrain power and affect brakes/lights, and a 2026 Defender fuel-tank defect that could leak or cause fire), then interview Defender Trophy trials finalist Nathaniel Biggs alongside Jenna Fribley about the North American Defender Trophy event near Stave Lake, British Columbia. Nathan describes team-based challenges including knot-tying and tripod skills, a high-lift jack winch task, interviews, a ropes course, a large-group “pencil” coordination game, compass navigation to collect codes, a run carrying a rotopax, night driving, and a group recovery using people power. Day two included vehicle-focused tasks like a wood-pyramid pull, a low bridge build, an off-road course with hole-punch targets, a mudflats trials-style navigation drive, and a tire-retrieval/change challenge. They discuss unclear scoring, strong camaraderie, and Nathan advancing to a New York stage announcement for who goes to Africa, before closing with Destination Defender info and teasing “Headgasket Gate.”

Steve Beres and Ike Goss discuss a Range Rover presence at Milan Design Week celebrating Range Rover Bespoke through a three-chapter installation—“memory and color,” “memory and motif,” and “memory and material”—including films, illustrations, embroidery, soundscape, and a one-off Range Rover Bespoke commission called the “Pearl of Tay,” inspired by the River Tay in Scotland, along with furniture partner pieces. Joined by Jenna Fribley and Liza Beres, they shift to updates on a shop project: building a 1972 two-door Range Rover for desert racing. They postpone an all-female, all-American Dakar plan and pivot to running the NORRA Baja 1000 in late April/early May 2027, citing easier domestic logistics and a more open, party-like event with classic-vehicle classes. They cover rule-book-driven build decisions (carburetion requirements, roll-cage compliance across rule sets, wheel-size exemptions), current roll-cage fabrication progress, plans for a YouTube build series, and challenges keeping the original dash while fitting safety bars, and they ask viewers with NORRA experience to help with logistics and accommodations. They also note plans to run the Rebelle in the fall.

Steve Beres and Ike Goss open with news from the UK about a military Defender towing a trailer that swerves to avoid a car on the motorway, flips multiple times, scatters gear across the road, and injures two soldiers. They then check in live from the SCAR event in Texas with Tom Pickford and the Pollyanna crew, who completed a 2,850-mile trip across the southern United States with their main issue being a snapped fan belt at the Louisiana border; they discuss public reactions, route highlights including Mobile, New Orleans, Cajun country, and Galveston, and the Barbara Toy tribute run and its impact. The episode closes with a Bring a Trailer feature on a refurbished 1994 Defender 90 300Tdi loaded with accessories, heavy rope, and diamond plate, bidding around $12,000.

Steve hosts without Ike  at first and checks in with Tom Pickford, Greg Fitzgerald, Bill Cooper, and Laura Stacey as they drive Pollyanna—Barbara Toy’s famed Series I Land Rover—across the southern U.S. toward the Texas Rover Club’s SCAR event honoring Toy. They discuss how the trip came together after Jaguar Land Rover brought Pollyanna to Pebble Beach, the convoy support vehicles, early mechanical quirks from year-old fuel, recreating Toy’s Jacksonville Beach moment with the mayor, and efforts to preserve and expand Toy’s legacy through barbara-toy.com, surviving letters, and the book The Free Lives of Barbara Toy, plus challenges republishing her out-of-print books (only In Search of Sheba is currently reprinted). Back in studio, Steve and Ike note Tim Slessor’s death, a Tom Holland Series Land Rover ad, and a Liam Neeson horror-comedy featuring Land Rovers.

00:00 Ike Is Out Today

00:39 Hotel Internet Fixes

01:32 Naming The Expedition

02:19 Meet The Pollyanna Crew

03:59 Why Recreate The Journey

06:52 Picking Up Pollyanna

07:24 JFK Versus Newark

08:49 On The Road Glitches

12:10 Laura Joins The Ride

14:45 Club Shirts And Walmart

15:56 Bill And The Support Cars

17:40 Writing And Publishing Plans

19:22 Saving Barbara Toy History

22:51 Recreating Jacksonville Beach

23:38 Family Ties And Legacy

25:16 Rescuing Barbara’s Archive

26:08 Letters Become a Book

26:39 Hunting Global Ephemera

27:41 Reprinting the Travelogues

29:27 Pollyanna and Lost Vehicles

31:32 Why the Books Are Rare

33:18 Secondhand Shop Strategies

34:24 Farewell and Modern Contrast

36:38 Land Rover News Roundup

38:02 Tom Holland Series Ad

39:36 Tattoo Banter Detour

40:42 Pollyanna Trip Check-In

44:16 Liam Neeson Zombie Film

46:35 Wrap Up and Next Check-In

Steve Beres and Ike Goss discuss the newly revealed Freelander, debating whether the images show a real production vehicle or a concept pushed out after a crash-test leak, and they comment on its bold styling, screen-heavy interior, and unusual seating and door design. They cover Land Rover news including Tiger Woods rolling a Range Rover in an alleged DUI incident, a viral Sudbury car-park video featuring a machete-wielding motorbike theft and a Defender intervening, and a reported 61% jump in JLR sales alongside jokes about Jerry McGovern’s departure. Ike shares Pangolin4x4 shop updates on a repeatedly botched transmission rebuild and the importance of correct tolerances, plus progress on two Michigan Land Rovers bought sight unseen. They also preview Tom Pickford and Bill Cooper driving the famous Pollyanna to the SCARR rally and mention Steve’s new diode laser tool for marking parts.

00:00 Show Intro and Hosts

01:20 Freelander Reveal Buzz

01:52 Concept or Production

02:38 Wild Interior Tech

06:27 Design Stripe Debate

09:02 Can You Buy It

09:44 Tiger Woods Rollover

12:06 Defender Vigilante Video

15:33 JLR Sales Spike Talk

16:46 Pangolin Shop Updates

17:40 Gearbox Rebuild Autopsy

18:27 Bushing Failure Explained

19:29 Why Tolerances Matter

21:35 Customer Fallout and Fix

22:41 Dialed In Land Rovers

24:28 Michigan Barn Finds Update

28:16 Pollyanna Road Trip

30:08 New Diode Laser Tool

33:12 Wrap Up and Next Week

Steve Beres and Ike Goss cover a bleak week of Land Rover news, including JLR temporarily halting production at the Solihull plant for two weeks due to a supplier dispute affecting Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. They discuss leaked crash-test photos of the new Freelander (developed with Chery), noting its larger SUV proportions, bold Freelander branding, and a stripped, modern JLR-like interior, along with reports of a $58,000 entry price and plans for the UK rather than the US. They revisit the confusing status of design chief Gerry McGovern, with new reports saying he will step down at the end of March. The hosts also note the British Army retiring its iconic Land Rover fleet with replacement expected by 2030, speculate about surplus sales, debut a “Would You Rather” segment, and mention a new Anaconda film opening with a classic Defender scene.

00:00 Show Intro and Hosts

01:31 JLR Halts Solihull Production

02:37 Freelander Crash Leak

04:32 Freelander Design Breakdown

08:17 Pricing and Market Plans

09:19 Jerry McGovern Exit Saga

12:10 British Army Retires Land Rovers

15:17 Defender Import Dreams

15:44 Would You Rather Begins

16:55 Heater Core Nightmare

18:32 Creepy Seat vs Enya Loop

21:59 Viewer Submissions Call

22:24 Defender Spotting in Anaconda

25:13 Project Hail Mary Rovers

25:40 Where Is Jerry McGovern

26:25 See You Next Week

https://classiclandrover.com/2026/03/20/british-army-to-retire-iconic-land-rover-fleet/

https://www.autonews.com/jaguar-land-rover/ane-jaguar-design-boss-mcgovern-starts-consultancy-0320/

https://www.autoblog.com/news/new-land-rover-freelander-leaked-after-crash-test

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3931xz101do

Steve Beres and Ike Goss discuss JLR’s new international Defender Awards and how they differ from the existing Defender Service Awards, including the judging-panel process and some winners. They review spy-photo news suggesting the Range Rover Velar is becoming a more wagon-like, road-focused vehicle, and debate why the newer Range Rover logo appears inconsistently on vehicles and the website. They cover controversy around a Chinese company’s Range Rover-like vehicle and ad copy. Steve then interviews Joe Hesselman of Lost Cause Ranch about his new car-wash-based shop with three-phase power and expanded CNC capabilities, plus his Land Rover projects including a six-wheel Discovery 2 and a Discovery 4 chopped into a tray-back “El Camino”-style pickup with custom aluminum flatbed and toolboxes. The episode ends with a brief film recommendation, "Sorcerer" (1978).

00:00 Show Intro and Hosts

01:20 Defender Awards Explained

03:53 Winners and Weird Highlights

04:57 Velar Update Wagon Talk

06:40 Range Rover Logo Mystery

08:27 China Copycat Ad Drama

11:02 Defender Lookalike SUVs

17:51 Interview Joe Lost Cause

19:15 New Ranch CNC Upgrades

24:35 Fleet Updates and 6x6 Disco

27:43 Chopping a Discovery Tease

28:13 El Camino Dreaming

29:38 Why Cut the LR4

30:37 Sourcing the Rear Cap

31:31 Slicing It in Half

33:53 Designing the Flatbed

36:28 All Aluminum Fabrication

39:58 Underbed Box Mastery

42:09 CNC Press Brake Talk

45:57 Future Ranch Projects

49:54 Utes and Car Culture

52:08 Sorcerer Movie Pick

54:23 Wrap and Next Week