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2nd gen bronco that Ford never made

gpeplau

Newbie
Joined
Sep 14, 2015
Messages
31
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.
 

jckkys

Bronco Guru
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
5,212
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.
 

Prizefighter

Bronco Guru
Joined
Feb 24, 2010
Messages
1,192
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

Bronco Guru
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
5,212
What they were calling a '74 Shorthorn looked like a 2 door Falcon wagon. Not very appealing.
 

blubuckaroo

Grease Monkey
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
11,795
Loc.
Ridgefield WA
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

Bronco Guru
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
5,212
Oddly, a double murderer saved the Bronco name from further destruction.
 

khmt

Newbie
Joined
Jul 19, 2021
Messages
16
The "Shorthorn" looks rough. I would hate to be caught dead in one of those.

Eoth thanks for sharing the link. Great history.
 

okie4570

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 16, 2012
Messages
9,349
Loc.
NW OK
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

Sponsor/Vendor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
10,362
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

Sponsor/Vendor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
10,362
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.
 
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