1966 Ford Bronco 1st Gen
You better buckle up if you're riding this Bronco. This vehicle and many more participated in the Cars and Coffee event held at the Kansas City Auto Museum in Olathe Kansas.
On August 11, 1965, Don Frey, the Ford Motor Company Vice President and Ford Division General Manager introduced the Ford Bronco by noting the company had added another pony to the stable to join its big brother, the Mustang. The Ford Bronco became the first automobile called out specifically as a “Sports-Utility Vehicle,” and an American classic was born.
The original Ford Bronco only stuck around for 12 years, but it's presence undoubtably overshadows the succeeding generations. In a lot of ways, the indirect successor to the World War II era Ford GPW - the Blue Oval's license-built version of the Willys MB Jeep the 1965 Ford Bronco was designed to complement the then-new Ford Mustang as a fun, youth-friendly off-roader.
Ford also had Jeep square in its sights in designing and engineering the Bronco. Like the Jeep CJ-5 of the time, the Bronco was small—its wheelbase is about the same length as a modern Mini Cooper Hardtop—and designed with simple flat surfaces that were both cheap to manufacture and easy to keep protected from rocks. The Bronco was offered up in three body styles: the "Wagon," which was a two-door with a removable hardtop, a "Roadster," which came roofless and with inserts instead of doors (much like the contemporary CJ-5), and as a "Sports Utility Pickup", better known as the "half-cab," which did away with the two-person rear bench seat of the roadster and hardtop in favor of a mini pickup bed. The Roadster would last until just 1968, making it a particularly rare vehicle. The Bronco half-cab would stick around until 1973, leaving the popular wagon as the only body style for the remainder of the first-gen Bronco's life.
At launch, the Bronco was powered by Ford's venerable 105-hp 2.8-liter I-6, paired with a three-speed manual transmission and four-wheel drive. A 4.7-liter V-8 producing 200 hp found its way under the Bronco's stubby little hood in 1966 before being replaced by a bigger 4.9-liter V-8 in 1968. In 1973, the base I-6 was replaced by a 3.3-liter I-6, and a three-speed automatic joined the fold.
According to FourWheeler, a total of 225,585 first-generation Broncos were built between 1965 and 1977 when production ended. Of those, 203,544 were Wagons, 17,262 Sports-Utility Pickups, and 5,000 Roadsters.
Sources:
corporate.ford.com/contact.html
www.motortrend.com/vehicle-genres/ford-bronco-history
1966 Ford Bronco 1st Gen
You better buckle up if you're riding this Bronco. This vehicle and many more participated in the Cars and Coffee event held at the Kansas City Auto Museum in Olathe Kansas.
On August 11, 1965, Don Frey, the Ford Motor Company Vice President and Ford Division General Manager introduced the Ford Bronco by noting the company had added another pony to the stable to join its big brother, the Mustang. The Ford Bronco became the first automobile called out specifically as a “Sports-Utility Vehicle,” and an American classic was born.
The original Ford Bronco only stuck around for 12 years, but it's presence undoubtably overshadows the succeeding generations. In a lot of ways, the indirect successor to the World War II era Ford GPW - the Blue Oval's license-built version of the Willys MB Jeep the 1965 Ford Bronco was designed to complement the then-new Ford Mustang as a fun, youth-friendly off-roader.
Ford also had Jeep square in its sights in designing and engineering the Bronco. Like the Jeep CJ-5 of the time, the Bronco was small—its wheelbase is about the same length as a modern Mini Cooper Hardtop—and designed with simple flat surfaces that were both cheap to manufacture and easy to keep protected from rocks. The Bronco was offered up in three body styles: the "Wagon," which was a two-door with a removable hardtop, a "Roadster," which came roofless and with inserts instead of doors (much like the contemporary CJ-5), and as a "Sports Utility Pickup", better known as the "half-cab," which did away with the two-person rear bench seat of the roadster and hardtop in favor of a mini pickup bed. The Roadster would last until just 1968, making it a particularly rare vehicle. The Bronco half-cab would stick around until 1973, leaving the popular wagon as the only body style for the remainder of the first-gen Bronco's life.
At launch, the Bronco was powered by Ford's venerable 105-hp 2.8-liter I-6, paired with a three-speed manual transmission and four-wheel drive. A 4.7-liter V-8 producing 200 hp found its way under the Bronco's stubby little hood in 1966 before being replaced by a bigger 4.9-liter V-8 in 1968. In 1973, the base I-6 was replaced by a 3.3-liter I-6, and a three-speed automatic joined the fold.
According to FourWheeler, a total of 225,585 first-generation Broncos were built between 1965 and 1977 when production ended. Of those, 203,544 were Wagons, 17,262 Sports-Utility Pickups, and 5,000 Roadsters.
Sources:
corporate.ford.com/contact.html
www.motortrend.com/vehicle-genres/ford-bronco-history