The Deep End of the FORD Bronco
All successful racing and consumer ventures, until the drunk Benson Ford Jr., flake doctor Louis Fuentes and others destroyed Bill Stroppe.
The unfortunate meeting of Bill Stroppe and flake doctor Louis Fuentes
Drunk Benson Ford Sr. dies in 1978 after seeing his son destroying the early success of the Bronco brand.
Benson turns on his 'doctor'
Yes! 'Baja' Bill Fuentes is related to the flake fake doctor Louis Fuentes!
Declaration of Louis Fuentes: "Son, William (Bill) Fuentes"?
Do you have information to contribute to this exclusive reporting? Send it to bajaracingnews@live.com
The New FORD Bronco is scheduled to launch for consumers, soon.
The Baja 1000 and Mexican 1000 are scheduled to run, in 2020, whether these races actually run is a serious, serious question at this point. The only sure thing about desert racing today, is the past, the men of racing and todays desert sunset. The 2020 summer solstice.
Gary Newsome, Writer
"The Racing Scene", by KING OF BAJA
Now you know why 'rod hall' was chosen as a tribute for the Bronco-R in 2019, 50th bull-shit. Because FORD Motor Company fucked up its own off-road racing history by the facts posted in this report!
FORD Performance takes another dump on its own 'racing history'. FORD Motor Company Performance REMOVED this video, because they were caught stealing media from a small southern California family company!
Rod Hall had NOTHING to do with the history of the racing bronco. He was a monkey, strapped into thirty or more years of racing pedigree, of the Stroppe Bronco!
People close to Bill Stroppe and Edsel Ford explain the original Bronco builds differ greatly from the design tree being utilized today. Bill Stroppe not only used his engineering skills, he had certain standards.
Bill Stroppe’s association with the Ford family began in 1947, when he piloted his Ford-powered home-built speedboat—“The Miss Art Hall”—to victory in the Henry Ford Memorial Regatta on Michigan’s Detroit River.
In the early 1950s, he attacked the grueling Carrera Panamericana road race in Mexico with specially prepared Lincolns, taking Touring-class wins in 1952 and 1953.
His red, white and blue Mercury stock cars were a force in NASCAR through the 1950s, and in the ‘60s, his partnership with race driver Parnelli Jones was rewarded with victories in competition from the Indianapolis 500 to the Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
The idea behind the consumer SUV 'Bronco' began with Ford product manager Donald N. Frey in the early 1960s (who also conceived the Ford Mustang) and engineered by Ford engineer Paul G. Axelrad, with Lee Iacocca approving the final model for production in February 1964, after the first clay models were built in mid-1963.
As a brief sidelight, in April 1963, Ford really did attempt to purchase the financially ailing Ferrari over the course of several secret meetings, including a tour for Ford reps through one of the artisanal shops in which machinists carefully worked on Ferrari’s 400 Superamericas. While Lee Iacocca had a role in this scheme, it was more minimal than it appears in the recent film, Ford v. Ferrari.
Much of the travel and haggling was conducted by his subordinate, a metallurgical engineer named Don Frey, (previously mentioned Ford product manager Donald N. Frey) whose technical know-how genuinely won the eccentric carmaker’s respect for a time. Enzo Ferrari would call Frey “Dottore Ingegnere” (Dr. Engineer) and would wistfully doodle logos experimenting with mergers of the Ford and Ferrari names.
Back to the point, developed as an off-road vehicle (ORV), the Bronco was intended as a competitor for the Jeep CJ-5 and International Harvester Scout. Today, a compact SUV in terms of size, Ford marketing shows a very early example of promoting a civilian off-roader as a "Sports Utility" (the two-door pickup version).
Racing, in 1965, race car builder Bill Stroppe assembled a team of Broncos for long-distance off-road competition. Partnering with Holman-Moody, the Stroppe/Holman/Moody (SHM) Broncos competed in the Mint 400, Baja 500, and Mexican 1000 (later named the Baja 1000). In 1969, SHM again entered a team of six Broncos in the Baja 1000.
In 1968, Stroppe and Jones turned to the increasingly popular sport of off-road racing, competing in the NORRA Mexican 1000, later renamed the Baja 1000. In 1971, Ford announced a “limited production edition” of Stroppe’s racing Ford Broncos called the “Baja Bronco.”
In 1971, a "Baja Bronco" package was marketed through Ford dealers, featuring quick-ratio power steering, automatic transmission, fender flares covering Gates Commando tires, a roll bar, reinforced bumpers, a padded steering wheel, and distinctive red, white, blue, and black paint. Priced at US$5,566, versus the standard V8 Bronco price of $3,665, only 650 were sold over the next four years.
Based on the Sport Bronco model, each one was sent to Stroppe’s Long Beach, California, shops where he installed rear-fender flares and trimmed the front fenders to make room for rock-climbing Gates Commando XT tires on the customer’s choice of 8.5-15 painted steel wheels or slotted-aluminum wheels. Also included in the Baja Bronco conversion were dual shocks at each wheel, a padded roll bar, rubberized steering wheel, front-bumper braces, trailer hitch, unique Baja Bronco tire cover and fender decals.
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