with the introduction of a new Bronco and where Suzy will take it. Here’s to many more years behind the wheel of our favorite rigs!
FOREWORD
by Parnelli Jones
As many of you know, I’ve basically been a Ford guy for most of my career—whether it was racing a Ford product or a race car powered by Ford—and over the years, I had some pretty good success. When I decided to reduce my oval track and road racing schedules, an opportunity came my way via my old friend Bill Stroppe, who at a party one night, challenged me to try off-road racing. My reaction was that I didn’t think that it would be my bag. Whereupon Bill, ever the master at goading someone on, replied that I probably wasn’t man enough. Well, that was like waving a red flag at a bull, and Bill got exactly what he wanted. The rest, as they say, is history.
The Ford Bronco, to me, was the perfect vehicle; it had all kinds of uses, and buyers just loved it because it could do just about anything on the street or highway. Needless to say, it also turned out to be a fabulous platform for off-road adventures of all kinds, including racing. I can hardly believe that this vehicle was introduced by Ford to the public 53 years ago, and yet today it is still highly sought after for restoration purposes and nostalgia events. Not only that, the Bronco is just plain fun to drive.
Todd Zuercher and I have known each other for several years, and he is still, to me, the most enthusiastic Bronco owner and historian I’ve ever met. You will feel his pride of Bronco history exuding from these pages. It is truly a pleasure and honor for me to be asked to write the foreword to this chronicle and pictorial record of the long Bronco history. Long live the Ford Bronco!
Capturing the spirit of the evening, Parnelli Jones shared a story during the Early Bronco Registry’s “Evening with the Legends” held during the Bronco 40th Anniversary Celebration in 2006. (Photo Courtesy Steve Sampson)
Parnelli Jones
January 14, 2019
INTRODUCTION
“What do I do? What do I do?” cried my mother. It was the annual woodcutting season in ranch country north of Prescott, Arizona, and our 1969 Ford Bronco, affectionately dubbed Broncitis, had just slid into a ditch.
The winter months in northern Arizona can bring heavy precipitation, which turn the local dirt roads into a sloppy, slippery mess once the sun thaws the frozen surface each day. Following my father in a truck loaded with firewood, our Bronco slithered left to right across his tracks, like a small boat trying to follow in the wake of an oceanliner. Pointing the vehicle in the desired direction of travel meant judicious application of the throttle, followed by a flurry of elbows as Mom turned the large steering wheel to counteract the pendulum-like motions of the rear of the vehicle.
And that’s how we ended up in the ditch. And how I ended up in the driver’s seat–again.
Switching seats made both of us immediately happier. Several years away from legally obtaining my driver’s license, I was happiest behind the wheel in Arizona’s remote backcountry, learning the skills to operate the Bronco on challenging roads. Mom was happiest when she could enjoy the view from the passenger’s seat while her husband or one of her sons drove.
That Bronco went on to become my driver’s training vehicle, carrier for my first date, partner for countless backcountry exploration adventures, research and development platform, and model for countless photos and articles. More recently, it carried my beautiful bride and I away from our wedding.
My love affair with the Ford Bronco is just one of thousands that have unfolded over the more than 50 years since its introduction. Talk to a longtime owner, or a group of enthusiasts, and they’ll all have stories of how the bobtail from Ford played a special part in shaping their lives and their most favorite memories. From family vacations to hunting and camping trips to simple run-of-the-mill commutes, these are the stories that give voice to the true legend of the Ford Bronco in American culture.
The Bronco started making history from almost the moment it was introduced. Magazine writers thrashed them around the backcountry, and high-performance enthusiasts soon had fenders cut, larger tires installed, and high-performance engines stuffed between the frame rails. On the practical side, service station operators and small business owners found them to be great plow trucks and delivery vehicles.
Owners went on to make memories with their trucks; whether they were one of the fairly crude early models or a plush Eddie Bauer Edition with leather seats and pile carpeting. Through all its iterations, the Bronco has been known as a tough, capable four-wheel-drive vehicle that combined its utilitarian nature with enough sportiness to engender strong emotions from owners, passengers, and those who admired them in action.
This book recounts some of the most iconic moments in the life of the Ford Bronco: its historic development, the technical details of each generation, its rich racing legacy, celebrity owners, appearances in numerous movie and TV roles, its part in the O. J. Simpson chase, and most important, the many stories of everyday owners that comprise a fascinating history of this remarkable vehicle in the American automotive landscape. Even more than that, it is a love story for the Ford Bronco, a truck that captured my heart and that I hope will enlighten yours.
The author’s 1969 Bronco at the top of Imogene Pass in southern Colorado in 1991 is a little sport and a little utility. The tow strap on back of the Bronco was used to tow a 2WD Nissan pickup to the top; the author’s younger brother (right) had just ridden his mountain bike to the summit from Telluride.
IN THE BEGINNING
Chapter ONE
“We think of the Bronco as neither a conventional car nor a truck, but as a vehicle which combines the best of both worlds. It can serve as a family sedan, a sports roadster, a snow plow, or as a farm or civil defense vehicle. It has been designed to go nearly anywhere and do nearly anything.”
The Bronco was not Ford Motor Company’s first foray into the world of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) that bridged the gap between cars and trucks. In fact, the seeds were planted almost 25 years earlier when Ford became one of the producers of the ubiquitous World War II Army Jeep. When Bantam Motor Company and Willys Motors could not keep up with Jeep production in the fall of 1941, the vast resources of Ford Motor Company were brought to bear in helping produce vehicles for the war effort. Ford produced almost 278,000 quarter-ton 4x4s, known as GPWs, in nearly four years of production, earning the love and respect of veterans (GIs) throughout the various theaters of the war.
When those GIs returned from the war, they married, started families, and bought surplus Jeeps. The little trucks, in turn, birthed a new form of recreation in the United States in the years following the war, allowing families to explore the country’s rugged backcountry. Legions of young men and women took their first turn behind the wheel in Jeeps, and the small utility vehicles served faithfully as snow plows, farm runabouts, ranch hands, maintenance vehicles, and errand runners. The Jeep line received a few upgrades in the 1950s, but the advent of the interstate highway system and higher speeds meant that the surplus war trucks and their younger brethren started to fall behind.
In 1960, the vehicle segment that is now known as the SUV market consisted of about 11,000 vehicle sales annually, with the majority belonging to the Jeep brand. In 1961, the International Scout was introduced and the market immediately expanded to 32,000 vehicles per year. In the year before the Bronco was introduced, the market had stabilized at about 40,000 units with Jeep and International capturing 85 percent of those sales and foreign-made units, such as the Toyota Landcruiser and Nissan Patrol, comprising the rest. Ford estimated there were about 200,000 SUVs on the road at the time of the Bronco’s