The Underpowered Hour

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