Unless you’ve been way out of the country or otherwise seriously indisposed over the past couple of years, you may have missed the fact that the Ford Bronco has become very attractive to collectors and restorers quite recently. A lot of first-generation Broncos, the compact Jeep-like rigs that Ford first produced in 1966, having been bringing serious money at a variety of auctions in well-restored condition now that things like Volkswagen microbuses have soared out of sight. The later, bigger post-1978 Broncos based on the F-series, of O.J. Simpson infamy, have themselves graduated to something that’s well beyond the usual used-vehicle fodder. Heck, Ford knows it had a good thing in the Bronco and is getting ready to re-introduce it for 2020. A new book from CarTech explores the history of this famed field Ford, from its conceptual days to the advent of the compact Bronco II, which later begat the Explorer.
In this book, lifelong Bronco enthusiast Todd Zuercher takes 192 hardcover pages to tell the vehicle’s story in text, engineering drawings, factory service bulletins and oh-so-many photos. All the factory special editions such as the Sport and the Ranger are covered fully, and most welcome is a separate chapter on competition Broncos, including the fleet by Bill Stroppe and the famed Big Oly Bronco of Parnelli Jones, who writes a foreword, the only racer to conquer the Indianapolis 500 and the Baja 1000. And who remembers that the drag-race transmission maven Doug Nash once ran a fiberglass-body Bronco as an NHRA Funny Car? The book retails for $42.95; an e-book is also offered at $37.95. Dial up 1-800-551-4754 and tell CarTech we sent you.
Jim Donnelly On Wheels 