Ford South Texas Region Event - "Back in the Saddle"

As everyone knows by now, Ford has announced they are bringing back the Bronco in 2020. The Lonestar Early Bronco Club was contacted by the Ford Regional Sales Manager a while back about doing a Bronco display at an upcoming event they were planning. They wanted to show their sales folks what a real Bronco is and educate them about the Bronco community a bit. They really didn't know what they wanted - just that the wanted the "original" Bronco - so we put together a small group of Broncos representing what Bronco enthusiasts do with Broncos and showing them the different models. We put together a great group of 6 Broncos that covered all that - unrestored original, restored original, trail modified, street modified and the BC Broncos Racer! Wagon, half cab and roadsters were all in the mix. These Broncos were truly some of the best examples of each type in the country. The event Grand Prize was one of the restored 66 roadsters on display.

We were hoping to get some info and possibly even a glimpse of the new Bronco but that's still in the development and under wraps! They did announce a statement from the design team that included a couple of interesting items - The new Bronco will be very highly "customizable" (think Jeep aftermarket) and it will be "true" to the original Bronco. Both very encouraging comments that maybe Ford WILL be doing it right!!

The event was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston on Friday night. Jason F. said he NEVER thought he's drive his trail rig in downtown Houston! Many of the older Dealers remembered actually selling early Bronco when they were new. But many of the newer sales folks knew nothing or very little about old Broncos. The senior folks gravitated towards the original examples and the younger people liked the modified ones! The Ford corporate folks were very appreciative of our effort to put on the display and they said the event was a big success for them.

Here's a few pics. The last one is giving away the Bronco. The winner got to choose between the 2 restored 66 Roadsters and he chose the Caribbean Turquoise one (restored by LEBC member Mike Reader).

Ford South Texas Region Event

Sounds like it was a great event. It’s encouraging that ford wanted to leverage owners of early broncos and show case the “possibilities”. I plan on purchasing the new bronco and look forward to what they come up with.

Thanks for the photos, I missed out on ford’s bronco study they did here in Colorado last summer but several of the Colorado classic bronco folks were chosen to interview for input on the new one. So again the signs are there that Ford is doing it’s due diligence to come up with something that will reflect classic broncos and the best of the big bronco and capture market share to make them money and us happy.

This was a pretty cool event and we felt honored to be asked to participate. The Dealers really do seem excited about Ford bringing the Bronco back and also seemed to agree that it needs to be worthy of the Bronco name.

I got this earlier today from the Ford Regional Sales Manager - keep in mind this is from the sales guy and not directly from the designers/engineers. This is what they authorized me to "release" to the public!

"The word I hear is that the team in Dearborn is still dimensioning all of the bodystyle/powertrain/content/user experience elements of the next gen Bronco. We have already announced that we will launch Bronco in 2020, and it will be manufactured alongside the new Ford Ranger at Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan. All indications are that Bronco is a major priority for the company, and that our best designers and engineers are fully engaged in ensuring the vehicle is true to the first generation of Bronco, while delivering the capability the customer desires, and the canvas on which they will want to put their own personal touches. We are excited about the prospects of reintroducing Bronco into the Ford lineup in the not too distant future! Our Bronco enthusiasts and our Dealers eagerly await the first look at the soon to be released Ford Bronco!!!"

So read into that what you can. It's now up to Ford to deliver a new real Bronco!

Here's a couple of better pics of the 66 early production U13 Roadster that the winner chose. This particular Bronco is believed to have been one of the original Ford promotional Broncos used in magazine ads in 1966 and 1967. It was immaculately restored to the condition and paint scheme as seen in the old ads.

that's very cool and great with all the different broncos I would of chose that bronco as well

Skiddy said:

that's very cool and great with all the different broncos I would of chose that bronco as well

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Let me tell you about the other one . . . ;D

It was an EARLIER (second week) production Budd bodied (eyebrow grill) U13 with 16 inch wheels, appearance package (no hub caps because of the 16 inch wheels) radio and heater delete. It was also a more recent restoration in Springtime Yellow that won Best of Show at the LEBC Round Up in April. It is stunning! It would have been a hard choice for me if I had been eligible and had won. But I think I would have chosen this yellow one. The choice for a Ford Dealer was obvious though given the Ford promotional history of the turquoise one.

oh yeah it's very sweet, I am afraid I would just have to keep them in garage on not drive either one:-[

Wow, Gary, how cool is that?? I know this is a highlight to remember for you. Now that you have an "in" with some Ford folks, maybe more tidbits of info will come your way too. Please share!!

What a great opportunity! Thanks for sharing the pics. An impressive line up of Broncos to show!

Pearlcoat said:

Wow, Gary, how cool is that?? I know this is a highlight to remember for you. Now that you have an "in" with some Ford folks, maybe more tidbits of info will come your way too. Please share!!

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It was a lot of fun - they treated us like Bronco celebrities! Even the hotel guests that were not part of the Ford event had fun looking at the Broncos. They may want have us participate in other activities as we get closer to the actual roll out of the new Bronco.

SC74 said:

What a great opportunity! Thanks for sharing the pics. An impressive line up of Broncos to show!

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It was a nice group of Broncos. I would have liked to show them a full blow n Bronco buggy too but we decided that might be a bit too much for a bunch of new car type folks! And I think that was a good call. We also could have had a restored Stroppe there but the display area was tight and they didn’t think there was enough room. Lee’s Street modded rig (see the “Sweet Sixteen” build thread here on CB) is incredible and the trail modified rig super nice too. And I’d never seen the BC Racer look so good! They got a real flavor of all the different things that early Bronco enthusiasts do with old Broncos.