It is definitely NOT a front solid axle. You can clearly see the inner a arm pivots in front of the rear mounted steering rack.
Yup, this is a ranger front suspension, you can see it better in the wheel pictures that show an upper A-arm.
The frame looks like a ranger frame cut down and reinforced with a C channel welded on from the outside.
The skid plate hides the exhaust but the diameter of the tailpipe shows it's running the 2.7L turbo motor (you can also just make out the exhaust manifold in the wheel-well pic). The 3.5T and 5.0 run larger diameter pipes on the f-series trucks.
According to my engineering buddies at Ford, this is not a Jeep wrangler competitor off road, it's a ZR2 Colorado competitor on-road or at least that's the benchmark set by upper management. They expect this to steel Jeep sales because of the ride and handling advantages of IFS considering most Jeeps live in mall parking lots. It will still have removable roof and doors but no fold-down windshield.
I don't think they are ever going to make a "real" Bronco. I've been told things about the full size and baby versions that are upsetting. So much so, one of my friends left Ford because the bean counters and marketing people make all the decisions, yet the engineers have little to no input. Ford is not looking good these days and it hurts me to say that.
