2nd gen bronco that Ford never made

[gpeplau]

Does anyone have any pictures of the second gen bronco that ford rendered up but never made? I believe it was supposed to debut in 1975 and I believe I have seen it on this forum before, but if you search for 1975 bronco on here... well you get a lot of results.

 

[Eoth]

Scroll down halfway down the page...

https://www.hagerty.com/media/autom...ed-bronco-treasure-in-fords-private-archives/

 

[jckkys]

They did a lot of weird things under the Bronco name. None of what I saw, would have been an improvement over what we know of as the early Bronco. Ford never got the concept that we love. That goofy Bronco woody was a joke.

 

[RM70]

That front end reminds me of the 67-72 C10s/Blazer/Suburban

 

[Prizefighter]

Looks influenced by the Asian imports of the time that were increasingly popular with Americans over domestic brands. 78-79 Shorthorn that we know is masculine, tough, and more rugged than any other model, so thankful that's what we got.

 

[jckkys]

What they were calling a '74 Shorthorn looked like a 2 door Falcon wagon. Not very appealing.

 

[TNcowboy]

So ugly it Should have been named the Ford Apology

 

[Broncobowsher]

There are a bunch of pictures and the history of it in the Bronco book written by one of the Bronco brothers around here, Todd Z.
https://www.amazon.com/Ford-Bronco-History-Fords-Legendary/dp/1613254148/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1

 

[blubuckaroo]

Good article!
I've been into Broncos since about 1970, when a guy had one in high school auto shop.
In the mid 90s Ford announced the 6th generation would be available with four doors. That news had mixed reviews from off-roaders.
But in '95 the Bronco was done and in '96 the new four door came out called the Expedition.
Some think the re-name was because of the OJ chase.

 

[jckkys]

Oddly, a double murderer saved the Bronco name from further destruction.

 

[khmt]

The "Shorthorn" looks rough. I would hate to be caught dead in one of those.

Eoth thanks for sharing the link. Great history.

 

[okie4570]

When that article first appeared I didn't notice in the pic with Donald Frey that the late 66 with 289 has an early 66 hood.

 

[toddz69]

When that article first appeared I didn't notice in the pic with Donald Frey that the late 66 with 289 has an early 66 hood.

Which happens to be the "Shelby Bronco" that Seth Burgett now owns.

Todd Z.

 

[toddz69]

A lot of different concepts were made during those years. This Hemmings article details a lot of them (most of which I was not aware of when I wrote my book):

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/20...s-crisis-heres-what-it-could-have-looked-like

The bottom line is, though, that these were all styling exercises and not much more. The Shorthorn project was the best destined to make it to production because they were not only doing styling exercises for it (Dick Nesbitt) but also building running mechanical prototypes (George Peterson).

The engineering review documentation from the 1972-1973 era mentions Shorthorn stuff - but doesn't mention any of these styling exercises, which are a fascinating subset of Bronco history unto themselves. A lot of these efforts remind me of the Ford Courier front end, etc.

Todd Z.

 

[gpeplau]

Scroll down halfway down the page...

https://www.hagerty.com/media/autom...ed-bronco-treasure-in-fords-private-archives/

yup, that is the article I was looking for. Thanks! Your contribution helped me win a bet

 

[Eoth]

yup, that is the article I was looking for. Thanks! Your contribution helped me win a bet

Good to hear... Congrats!