New Bronco R Baja Racer Gives Us a Preview of the Next Bronco
Concept honors Rod Hall and Larry Minor, who won the 1969 Baja 1000, and gives us an idea of how the all-new Bronco will look.
What you see here is the 2021 Ford Bronco. Sort of. This is actually the Ford Bronco R Baja 1000 prototype race truck that commemorates a famous Ford off-road racing victory, but it does provide clues about the 2021 production model’s eventual styling, which will be revealed next spring.
In 1969, Rod Hall and Larry Minor got behind the wheel of a Ford Bronco and competed in the 1969 Mexican 1000 (now known as the SCORE-International Baja 1000). At the end of the grueling race across the Baja Peninsula, the two emerged victorious with an overall win. According to Hau Thai-Tang, Ford chief product development and purchasing officer, “Bronco’s win at Baja in 1969 was epic, something that even after 50 years has not been repeated.”
Paul Wraith, chief designer of the next-generation Bronco, and a few of his colleagues started working on the Bronco R in July in the basement of a Ford studio. What they created both pays homage to the past and gives us a glimpse into the future. The Bronco R is covered in a red, white, and black color scheme that pays tribute to its 1969 ancestor’s racing livery. The number 2069 signifies which class it will race in (20) as part of the 2019 Baja 1000 later this month and the year (’69) that Hall and Minor made themselves and the Bronco into racing legends. Other design touches include block letters across the grille that spell out B R O N C O, with the R highlighted in red.
Wraith and his team collaborated with Ford Performance, Geiser Bros Design and Development, and Cameron Steele, a Baja 1000-winning Trophy Truck racer, to create a race-ready rig that’s reminiscent of the 1966-1977 Broncos. They combined the Bronco R’s retro/futuristic styling with squat and wide lightweight composite bodywork that sits above a modified Ford T6 platform (which will serve as the foundation of the 2021 Bronco) and a set of 17-inch beadlock-capable wheels surrounded by 37-inch BFGoodrich racing tires. A whopping 15 lightbars are there to keep the Bronco R’s drivers headed in the right direction.
To handle the punishment of the desert terrain it’ll be blasting across, the Bronco R is equipped with an independent front suspension with 14 inches of travel, a five-link rear design with 18 inches of travel, and custom Fox shocks. Inside, there’s a roll cage and three Recaro off-road racing seats. The simple dashboard is a throwback to the first-generation Bronco while the MoTeC data acquisition system serves as a clear reminder of the times in which the Bronco R will compete.
No word on what exactly is under the hood, but a Blue Oval rep did reveal a little about it. Brian Novak, Ford Performance off-road racing supervisor, said, “For the endurance needs of Baja’s 1,000 grueling miles, we built in a limited number of race-focused parts. But even the twin turbos of the EcoBoost engine are representative of what the production Bronco will offer.”
Those turbos will be pumping out max boost once the Bronco R hits the sand for the 2019 SCORE-International Baja 1000 November 19-24. Its surroundings and livery won’t be the only things connecting it to Rod Hall; his granddaughter Shelby Hall will be driving the Bronco R through portions of the nearly 1,000-mile course. She said, “My grandfather was so proud of the 1969 Baja race and of his Bronco. More than just the memory of winning Baja, he loved that Bronco. I have no doubt he would be blown away by the Bronco R race prototype.”
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