Who wants a nice hot take? Because I have one, fresh out of the air fryer, with only a bit of melted plastic stuck to it from where I left a chunk of wrapper still on it. It’s a hot take in the purest sense, an opinion felt fiercely and one that came into being surprisingly quickly, almost a visceral gut reaction – maybe realization – that was born when I read the subject line of an email I got just now. The email was from a company that makes restomodded Land Rover Defenders, and as I glanced at that email, one thought popped into my head:
Fuck restomodded Land Rover Defenders.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh, and I don’t entirely mean it, but I don’t entirely not mean it, either. And I’m not just pulling this take ex recto, it comes from some experience with both restomodded and original Defenders and I think a pretty clear view of this whole market. Let’s get deeper into this by looking at the email I got that triggered all of this:
A company called ECD out of Florida sent this out, showing off one of their restomodded Defenders. It’s got a Chevy small-block LT V8, upgraded luxury interior, updated lighting and instruments and big fancy wheels and all that. If this is the first time you’ve seen a restomod Defender, you’ll likely think it’s reasonably cool, albeit in maybe a sort of dickhead way. But, you know, let people like what they like, it’s fun.
The problem here is that there seems to be, according to my estimates, a metric snacktillion of these companies making restomodded Defenders that are almost exactly like this. I’m not kidding; do a Google search of your own and you’ll see: if you have between $75,000 to $500,000 or so to throw around, you can have your pick of any number of unsettlingly similar restomodded Defenders.
It’s not so much about how many companies are out there transforming old, slow Defenders into new, faster, swankier versions of themselves, it’s more about how they’re all pretty much doing the same damn thing.
There’s absolutely a formula here: tear down an old Defender, replace all the corroded stuff, perhaps use a whole new frame, gut it and replace the interior with a lot of leather and Alcantara hides, slap in some aftermarket electronics to let you use CarPlay or Android Auto, lots of speakers, shove a GM LS or LT or similar V8 engine under the hood, give it a fancy paint job with paint sourced from some premium carmaker, stick it on some huge garish wheels, then sell it for about $200,000 to someone who likes to go fast but is indifferent to turning or braking.
Seriously, they’re all like this; I reviewed a couple of these from a local maker of such machines, and while they were fine, even fun in some ways, they’re not really all that different from so many other companies’ en-fancified Defenders. At all. I’ve seen so many uncannily similar ones from other companies that seem to use the same sources for instruments and interior fittings and major mechanical parts – everyone’s singing from the same, uh, playbook.
And, if you actually drive one of these, I suspect that you’ll find this basic formula that everyone uses is kind of, well, stupid. Original Defenders were incredible off-road, and have well-earned their iconic status, but for day-to-day driving, they’re quite gleefully miserable. I drove one when I was in Iceland a number of years ago, and while it handled the rugged terrain like a champ, doing any sort of normal driving in Reykjavik was a miserable chore.
On normal, paved roads, the ride is harsh, the handling skittish, it’s top-heavy and has a turning circle with a diameter that has ends in two different area codes, visibility isn’t great, it’s simultaneously slow and also too fast for its own handling limits – it’s just kind of a mess. A charming, wonderful mess to perverts like myself, but the idea that a Defender is a good or comfortable on-road car is just kind of delusional.
And you know how you don’t solve those problems? By shoving a Corvette motor in one.
And yet, that’s pretty much what all these companies do. Oh, maybe not specifically a Corvette LS3, but something equivalent. The Defender restomods I’ve driven have been way over-powered and under-braked. There’s so many, I’m sure there are some that are better than others, but overall, a Defender with 600 horsepower or so is just inane.
And it’s not like these restomods are great for off-roading, or used for that. Sure, there are some that are made more off-road capable, but who exactly is taking their leather-interior’d, ultra-luxury $200,000 SUV with a paintjob that costs as much as tuition to a respected university rock crawling? Nobody is doing that.
Look, if this is the kind of thing you like, fantastic, I hope someone just hands you the keys to one the moment you walk outside your door tomorrow morning, and I hope you enjoy the crap out of it. But I think even the biggest proponents of incredibly expensive, over-engined, over-done Defenders can admit that this is, really, a very solved problem.
There’s plenty of fancy restomod Defenders out there, and unless some company is going to start doing something radically different with these, I think we can call it. I don’t even know how many companies are cranking these things out, but I bet we can reduce that number down to something like, I don’t know, three or so? That seems plenty.
Is there really that much demand for these? How does the market support so many nearly identical expensive-as-hell, questionably-useful cars? I’m not the only one to notice this, of course. There’s multiple articles that are just lists of companies cranking these out.
I’m just saying I think we’re good on restomodded Defenders. I think we can call this one, declare some sort of victory, and move on. Congratulations, boutique car-modders, you did it. You won. Now let’s find something else to do, how about?
Nobody is restomodding Ford Tempos! Just saying!
Top graphic image: Jason Torchinsky; Google screenshot
Remember when we could upgrade a classic car without pretending to have invented a new product? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
I bet you can buy a Defender and get the work done for less at West Coast Customs, even if you have to pay extra to keep the TV’s.
The local restoration shop in Brooklyn is pretty proud that they don’t make their Defenders more luxurious. Most of them have a diesel, and the improvement is that they work and have no rust.
What is even sillier is you can buy a brand new Grenadier for that sort of money with a guaranteed BMW, petrol or diesel, which while also wobbling on the tarmac, does everything the old Defender does with knobs on…
The only people who are worse than the people who drive resto-modded Defenders are the people who buy new AMG G Wagons.
Mercedes-Benz resto-modded their own truck.
Um, have you driven a G-Wagen? They’re not exactly a Jeep with a bigger engine.
That may be so – but they never go farther off road than a gravel driveway or a mall parking lot.
A fast Unimog is what i want.
Maybe lash a solid state rocket engine to the back?
My uncle worked for Shell Development in the 60s and was designing buildings and landscaping for some labs. The requirements were for very strong walls, very weak roofs, and enough berms so that one building could be flooded without inconveniencing the neighboring buildings. The idea was that in the event of an explosion the roofs would blow off but the walls would contain whatever excitement the chemists had come up with.
So to have a repeatable test someone decided that setting off a JATO engine inside would be an easily repeatable source of hot gas under pressure. Or at least a fun I guess.
Anyway we had a few spent JATO rocket engines in the farm junkyard because why not?
When I pulled a pickup out of the junk to fix up, I really wanted to mount one of those in the bed but by that time they had been sent to the scrap dealer. I missed the opportunity to drive around in a replica of the fabled JATO rocket on a pick up by that much. Can you imagine the conversations?
Btw, the same place that set off JATO bottles indoors once disposed of a contaminated lank truck full of liquid oxygen by dumping it on the ground. Which would probably have been fine if the ground had not been in the middle of an asphalt runway.
I think it’s an easy recipe to follow. Making “replacement” bodies, frames, and running gear is cheap, and probably the intellectual property ownership is so convoluted that combined with the first sale doctrine, these shops are probably too much trouble to sue. Also I am sure that there is an ample supply of 25 year old Defender VINs scattered across the globe just waiting to be gathered up.
Anyway, Series 2 Land Rovers are where it’s at. Those pretend Land Rovers with the headlights in the fenders are so gauche, I mean, the nerve of those people!
HEADLIGHTS IN THE FENDERS!
I need to sit down. Where’s my gin?
Oh and you are just scratching the surface. Have you seen all the FJ40 Land Cruiser restomods? There could be more of those than Defenders.
Where I live FJ40 still abound as basically farm tractors, but they are now slowly being exported to the US, fully restomodded locally because it’s cheaper to do it here.
Sounds like Jason woke up cranky….
Seriously though… My impression is that these tuner companies have only sold a few of their restomod defender models. There might be a dozen different companies doing it but that still comes out to like 36-ish defenders to sell across all of the USA. I mean I might be wrong on the numbers but I have feeling that I am not far off.
The shop is probably more excited than the buyer when they close a sale.
Not to speak for him, but that was my takeaway of Jason’s point?: There don’t need to be dozens of companies making the same product that sells in the dozens.
I could go for a restomod 1990’s Samurai. But:
The budget cap would be $15K USD.
The wheels and tires would have to be sized the same as original factory. Newer tire technology would be ok.
No spacers, lift kits etc.
Powertrain, go nuts. Hayabusa?
Upholstery, the finest foreskins of the greatest racing camels of all time.
And no pointless winch, nobody who knows how to drive a Samurai ever needed a stinkin’ winch, unlike these posh trucks. 😉
You know exactly what you want and how much you’re willing to spend on it, you’re not the customer for these vehicles.
Companies selling these things are advertising a modern driving experience with classic styling, not a classic experience that’s been upgraded. Their target customer can’t tell you anything about the unmodified Defender other than it looks cool, is good off-road (or so they’ve heard) but unreliable (or so they’ve heard). The buyer will, however memorize the pamphlet stats for their Icon/Singer/whatever version.
Can we put restomodded muscles cars on this list also? Eleanor mustangs, challengers with huge wheels and bazillion dollar interiors.
As I have said for nearly a decade, if I never see another Eleanor’d mustang, it will be too soon.
As someone who has been stuck behind a non-restomod-defender on a hilly highway, I say they should ALL get an LS installed at the port.
Going with the Corvette variant is stupid, but take a random Silverado off the showroom floor and the engine is probably fit for purpose of keeping up with traffic and being serviceable.
Can we extend this to the restomodded Broncos, Blazers, and 4WD pickups too? I’m sick of all of these queens.
Hear Hear, at this point if you want a,Defender with all mod cons just buy an Ineos Grenadier. It’s cheaper than most of the Chelsea Tractors and has a dealer network and a warranty.
These are every bit as bad as the “baller” G Wagens, and will never face an offload obstacle apart from the ornamental boulders at the mall
There are few things more naff than an overly shiny proper offroader with a luxury interior that will never, ever, ever go get muddy offroad. A proper Landie is scruffy and well used.
Like this, my shabby-chic Disco I (Defender in mommy jeans):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/QrPdKGB6vAN2V1TZA
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bGaozbWpYUrkzKDY8
Nobody would be afraid to get that old girl dirty and track some mud onto the rubber mats inside. And I have. And the stock 185hp V8 will punt it along faster than you will EVER want to go in it.
You had to bring up mom jeans. Now I am hot and bothered
LOL! I won’t kink-shame.
That’s cleaner and shinier than our go-to-town cars, much less the drive around the fields cars.
To be fair – the old girl looks better in those pictures than in person. Lots of paint fade and some bad clearcoat. And both bumpers have been tweaked )pretty sure the other side front fender replaced too). But she’s honest. And NO rot – was a SoCal truck until I bought her, and has only barely been used in Maine winters since (I avoid being in Maine in the winter at all costs since I started wintering in Florida).
Hey! That’s looking nicer than my daily-driver Disco I ever did. Awesome!
Land Rovers of all kinds are meant to do everyday work.
Even Queen Elizabeth’s beloved Range Rovers weren’t pristine — She drove them wherever and however she wanted, with her corgis along for the ride.
This is a completely correct take. No notes.
However, if I saw any one of these bedazzled Defenders on the road in the city, I would 100% make a comment on how cool it is.
I am surprised that companies can still restomod Defenders when you could buy a new Grenadier.
Co-worder just bought one. Ordered it and had it to his specs in like three months even with the tariff mess. he just got back from a hunting trip to North Dakota with it and it was apparently great. He has some questions about the HVAC, but he took delivery during a heat wave and that car has a lot of un-tinted glass.
This is a really good point.
I’m personally not a fan of the Grenadier, but I’d rather drop big bucks on a new one of those with a warranty vs. a questionable resto-modded defender.
Jason! I agree 100% on your take. However, until the restomods sold surpass the Shelby Cobra, read more replicas and tributes than the original model, they aren’t worth complaining about
I would argue the Cobra is quite different, the original is prohibitively expensive and deeply beloved, most folks with a replica would rather have an original but can’t afford it. With these restomod Defenders, we’re talking about people who don’t want an original Defender, but a new car that looks like a Defender, and can be convinced that a new engine and a double DIN touchscreen make it new.
The old Defenders, while cool, were by 1990’s standards, hot garbage to drive, and they still are. The old days where NAS Defenders were commanding huge prices on BaT are mostly over, and to be honest it’s about time. I once lusted after a ’97 until I drove it (in 1997) and realized what a huge piece of overpriced agricultural equipment it was. I still love the looks and I’ve entertained the idea of an Ineos to satisfy that sweet, sweet brick on wheels craving I’m dealing with. These restomods though? Maybe at 50k. Not more. Just pony up for an Ineos.
TBF you are asking a vehicle built a decade earlier for a specific farm purpose to operate as a modern vehicle for an entirely different purpose. Buy the expensive tribute model with a similar body attached to a new frame
The agriculturalness is part of the charm. But I agree that prices for them (in the US) were stupid to start with, and got a lot more stupid as they aged. Especially since a Disco I is basically the exact same thing in a slightly different package (and rather more practical package at that) for 1/2 the price new and 1/10th the price used at one point for equivalent condition.
Sorry for being that guy, the Disco 1 is basically a range Rover, not a defender.
It’s a bit of both, the Defender is an evolution of the One Ten which was a modified Stage One V8 body on a Range Rover ambulance chassis. So they have a common chassis but different wheelbase. The Discovery I is on the same 100″ wheelbase as the Range Rover and the body is a base unit, so you are more correct
Thanks for the info.
My (limited) understanding was that when the RR classic was replaced by the P38, they basically kept the classic as the Disco by putting a new body on it.
And they all share a common suspension architecture and axle designs, but the wheelbases, ride heights, and springs chosen can make a difference in how they behave on and off the road.
The differences get even more muddied when various owners swap out parts — particularly springs and shocks, until it winds up in the hands of another owner who has no idea what’s been done up to that point. It gets muddled on a decades-old vehicle with a spotty maintenance history.
The Defender is, however, a good bit better on-road than the prior Series trucks, owing to it adopting the original coil-spring suspension architecture from the Range Rover and Discovery I. It’s still heavily biased toward utilitarian off-road driving though.
And body roll is definitely a thing on any classic Land Rover. The more modern coil-sprung ones can roll like boats with sudden changes in direction but they’re not on the verge of toppling like it might seem. The roll center is low and the body sits high above, accentuating the effect in the driver seat. But the car’s center of gravity is much lower due to most of the weight being in the frame/suspension and the driveline — which is all intentionally tucked in-line between the frame rails. The driver position is just plonked up high on top of it all, which gives an exaggerated sensation of roll. They can be driven quite energetically without actually being tippy, despite the “feel”.
Early Disco Is and Defenders basically drive the same (though a Disco I is a lot quieter than a Defender, if not really any more comfortable) – and everything you said is true about how they drive. Mine is a little less rolly-polly due to the PO having put Bilstein’s on it – but they don’t help the ride at all. P38a’s (especially) and Disco IIs really moved the ride and handling game on a LOT, but they depend on electronics to make up for the loss of axle articulation. TANSTAAFL… I assume air-sprung Classics are more like P38a’s, but I’ve never actually driven one. The BMW-era Range Rovers are a whole different universe, of course.
A Disco I, a steel-sprung Range Rover Classic, and a late Defender, are all nearly identical mechanically. Minor detail differences to the point where you can pretty fairly say that a coil-sprung Defender is a Disco I/RRC chassis with the old Series body plopped on top of it.
A Disco II is closely related to the P38a Range Rover, and both are very different beasts than any of those. The Disco I and II are kind of hilarious in looking basically the same but almost nothing is interchangable between them.
I’ve only driven a diesel Defender in the UK and it was right at home, although very noisy on the motorway. I’d be fine with a 300 TDI County Station Wagon with a few mods, should be $30k at most
I’ll come out in support of the restomods, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with either building a classic to your taste, or improving on the parts that sucked. What good is a classic if you don’t drive it because you’re not confident it’s reliable, or because the n&v is poor. A car doesn’t lose “soul” just because it is able to stop in a reasonable distance, or because you don’t have to cross your fingers every time you turn the key. I will criticize that certain vehicles do get overdone and they all kind of use a similar formula but there’s nothing wrong with building a car you actually would enjoy driving regularly.
But if the vehicle is nothing like the original except for a similar body it ain’t that vehicle. Just sell it on its own merits
I was thinking the same for the ‘new’ Diablos that were unveiled at Quail. All-new this, all-new that…just leave the damn original car alone and create the new car from scratch!
They’re all trying to be the next Singer.
Honestly? I’m good on overpriced restomodded everything. Defenders. Broncos. Porsches. Grand Wagoneers.
The fact that there’s so many of them and enough people who can afford to buy these at these prices blow my mind.
A restomod is much cooler when its done by someone in their garage with their own blood sweat and tears in the build. This is just flaunting cash.
It’s the vehicular equivalent of climbing Everest these days. Or going to space. Take what was once a cool achievement and ruin it by throwing money at someone else to do all the hard work or clear the path for you.
If I win the lottery I can hire sherpas to carry my fat ass up Everest and claim I accomplished it, or buy a ticket from tech boi to be a passenger on his high flying aircraft. I’d prefer hiring the best Sherpas to go up the best trail at the best time of the year by themselves and set a climbing record that will stop amateurs of ever climbing again. Still working on the best way to stop the fake astronaut ego trips. Maybe rent out the Vomit Comet strap in a half dozen cows take them on a similar 30 second weightless trip land put the cows in similar astronauts outfits and claim a larger all female astronaut crew going into space.
For real.
I think the cash flaunting is the point..
It is, obviously, but maybe we should just tax them instead.
Then there are the people who pay $100k for a like-new example of a shitty base-trim ’80s truck. I’m not sure which is dumber. Nostalgia is a helluva drug.
The right way to do the powertrain would be with an upgraded Rover V8 from TWS. It would maintain the character of the original while giving it some modern power and eventual leaks, er, “rustproofing”, for authenticity. Eventually this is what I’m going to do with my P38. Speaking of untapped restomod markets…
I’ve always considered them vanity codpieces for rich white guys with more money than sense and as a result I’ve never been interested…not to mention there are like a bazillion options when it comes to luxury off roaders for the conspicuous consumption crowd as is anyway. BORING!
There is a dealer who sells these things that I have to pass every time I head east. They always have twenty or thirty of these, and much like modified Porsches they all try so hard and all end up looking exactly the same and are all driven by the exact same kind of people. It’s a status marker, it allows people to say they have a custom vehicle without having to lift a finger or have a single original thought in their head. I expect a backlash and a flood of used ones in the next few years, of which I will not be taking advantage.
Do Broncos next. The prices people pay for these things is absurd.
I’ll say that the market for the Bronco’s has really cooled. I hope that holds true for the rest of this rich guy fantasy cosplay.
The Bronce market has cooled? The sales of Broncos are similar to Mega Millions lottery tickets when Powerball jacketpot is a billion dollars higher and tickets cost $3 less. Buy your Powerball tickets tonight.
Take a look at BAT auction results for Broncos and watch how the prices have consistently dropped over the past 18 months. And, thanks for reminding me to buy a Powerball ticket.
TBF every one already attacks anyone who drives something they disagree with. The Autopian does such a great job trying to educate us that it doesn’t matter what vehicles you love but apparently not everyone is getting the message. And yes I am still learning that lesson.
I only care about Bronco prices because my wife wants one. If you can afford it, more power to you but I’m gonna have to start selling organs!
There are maybe 40 Ineos sittting on a lot I pass when I drive to Costco. I can’t imaging the market can support too many 200k restomodders tbh.
I’ve seen like 2 Grenadiers in the wild and they’re like….fine, I guess? The market is just super oversaturated with this stuff at this point. There are already like 9,000 different six figure takes on the Defender already….and the fact that Ineos is the pet project of a billionaire chemical mogul who wanted another fancy toy makes me like them even less.
Ineos drive like garbage. The steering has no self centering, so it drives like an old off roader, which is great off road, but you make constant corrections on the road. Defenders do as well. People buying these are better served by a G-wagon or LX etc 99% of the time, and realize that, which is why they aren’t selling…
Kind of an odd comparison considering those are all substantially more expensive. A G is literally 2x the price. An LX is like 50% more expensive. I don’t think those are really stealing any sales off Ineos. If it is, I guess BMW lost a sale to Toyota when I bought a Sienna instead of an X7. If you throw price out the window, surely almost everyone would be better served by a different car.
Now what is probably actually eating their lunch is the Wrangler, Bronco, GX, Land Crusier, 4Runner, and Defender. Each of those can at least be spec’d to a similar cost of an Ineos, have similar capabilities, probably has a closer dealer to you, and varying degrees of on road driving ranging from garbage to pretty dang comfy.