Ford Bronco Now Available With Factory V8 Power

Did that headline grab your attention? As proponents of unmuffled V8 engines, it certainly grabbed ours. Gearheads have been shouting for an eight-cylinder Bronco ever since the first sketches of the Wrangler-fighter appeared all those years ago. Yesterday, in the desert near Las Vegas, Ford finally introduced such a rig.

There’s a catch, of course: the Bronco DR is strictly meant for off-road racing. And it’ll cost a cool quarter-mil.

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The Right Spec: 2022 Chevy Colorado

GM’s mid-sizer showed up as a contestant in the Ace of Base series a couple of years ago, back when the four-banger could be paired with a manual transmission. Chevy has since quietly removed that option from its order sheet, leaving cheapskates frugal shoppers with a fistful of automatic transmission.

An advantage of these Right Spec posts? The ability to venture beyond the bargain basement. Despite its second-rung status in the Chevy Truck pecking order in terms of size, there’s no shortage of trim configurations for this bowtie pickup. Throw in a trio of body styles plus a few engine choices, and the decision tree grows quite a number of branches.

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Rare Rides: The 1978 Sbarro Windhound, a Luxury SUV of 6.9 Litres

Today’s Rare Ride is the third car in the series from designer Franco Sbarro. Our premier Sbarro creation was a windsurfing-specific take on the Citroën Berlingo, and the second was a very hot hatchback called the Super Eight – a Ferrari underneath.

While both of those creations were one-off styling exercises, today’s Sbarro actually entered very limited production. Presenting the Windhound of 1978.

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The Right Spec: 2022 Toyota 4Runner

With every mainstream automaker on the planet seeking to pad their bottom line with tasty SUV profits, the number of jacked-up wagons on offer is truly dizzying. Most of them are car-based, of course, including several in Toyota’s own wheelhouse – witness the mystifying Corolla Cross introduced this year.

This makes the 4Runner something of a glorious throwback. Perched on its toes and looking out into traffic with a lantern jaw, this SUV may be old as the hills but is enjoying some of its most robust sales to date.

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GMC Canyon AT4 OVRLANDX Off-Road Concept

GMC introduced an interesting concept at Colorado’s Overland Expo Mountain West 2021 this week and the timing couldn’t have been better. While North America has always appreciated off-road vehicles, there’s been an overnight explosion in the number of people considering 4×4 adventuring as a hobby. Troubled times have encouraged individuals to embrace the kind of cars that can tackle any terrain while doubling as a mobile campsite, and the Canyon AT4 OVRLANDX Off-Road Concept certainly seems capable.

Although the hypothetical production model probably has a better chance of becoming canvases for online influences than carrying anybody through a genuine disaster. This is something GMC likewise appears hip to, as the whole point of the concept SUV is to show what can be done with the Canyon, a little creativity, and a wad of cash reserved for aftermarket accessories.

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Jeepers: Toledo South to Temporarily Halt Gladiator Production

The chips are down in Ohio, with semiconductor shortage reaching the factory floor where Jeep builds its Gladiator truck. According to reports, the Stellantis plant responsible for assembly of the lantern-jawed pickup, Toledo South, will halt the models’ production next week.

Wrangler production is not affected. For now.

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The Right Spec: 2022 Land Rover Defender

There are more than a few readers looking at this installment of The Right Spec and opining that the best way to spec a Land Rover – any Land Rover – is to not do so at all. Given some, uh, challenges that have befallen early adopters of the rebooted Defender, they may have a point.

Nevertheless, this thing turns more than a few heads and stylists in Coventry certainly got it right when putting pen to paper (or mouse to screen, as it were). For 2022, the Defender’s base price has jumped a bit; but, as we’ll see, the best models are much further up the food chain.

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How Jeep Can Fight Off the Ford Bronco

The new Ford Bronco is here. It got glowing reviews from most of the automotive media this week, and while I’d like to think our review was fairly balanced, it tilted positive. The rig is pretty good. Jeep and its Wrangler need to fight back.

How?

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The Right Spec: 2021 Ford Bronco

Seeing the response to a Right Spec analysis to last week’s Wrangler, our fancy-pants Managing Ed rightly suggested we go ahead and examine the Bronco. Fresh off a couple of days wheeling it around the sagebrush of Texas, he was ready to declare the long-awaited Blue Oval bruiser lives up to all the hype.

But what the correct mix of options? What’s the Right Spec? Let’s crack open the configurator and find out.

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2021 Ford Bronco First Drive - Living Up to the Hype

Few new-vehicle launches in recent years have generated as much hype or been as anticipated as that of the Ford Bronco.

Bronco has been a big story for us and our peers since last summer. We’ve ridden in one already, and now it was our turn to finally drive it. So I dutifully packed a bag and headed to the Texas Hill Country outside of Austin to see if the big Bronco would live up to the hype – and be a strong challenger to Jeep’s venerable Wrangler.

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The Right Spec: 2021 Jeep Wrangler

We briefly thought about covering the new (and thirsty) Grand Wagoneer for this week’s entry into the Base Camp series, given the model’s excellent retro name and propensity to induce rose-colored myopia in adults who mis-remember the Malaise Era. However, we all know there’s only one way to order such a rig: fully loaded.

Which is why we’re focusing our efforts on the Wrangler. It serves as Jeep’s trademark since it is the image that pops into most people’s minds – even non-gearheads – when they hear the word ‘Jeep’. Plus, in most guises, it approaches something that can even be called affordable.

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Report: 2021 Ford Bronco Fuel Economy Ratings Revealed

As the 2021 Ford Bronco crawls closer to launch, enthusiasts and the automotive media continue to look for any relevant information related to the Bronco. It is the most anticipated vehicle launch of the year, and we all want to drive it now. While we won’t have the opportunity to drive the Bronco today, we do have Bronco news. Both Full Size Bronco and Bronco Nation have fuel-economy numbers for the 2021 Ford Bronco, and they aren’t great.

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2021 Bronco Badlands Podiums at Mexican 1000 Rally

A stock 2021 Bronco Badlands finished third in the NORRA Mexican 1000 off-road rally, driven by two Ford engineers. The podium finish came in the Pre-Runner Truck class.

Bronco engineer manager Jamie Groves and Seth Goslawski, another Bronco engineer, drove the majority of the 1,141 mile race across the Baja peninsula. Brad Lovell, a Bronco advisory panel member and prior NORRA winner, helped navigate and drove one stage during the five-day event.

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Tread Lightly! Clears Hey Joe Canyon Trail

Tread Lightly!, with the help of partners and volunteers, cleared 11 miles of tamarisk from Hey Joe Canyon, an off-road trail in Moab, Utah. The Easter Jeep Safari stewardship project was completed during the event.

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Polaris Renews Its Leadership

Polaris today affirmed the appointments of a new CEO and CFO, both of whom had been serving in interim roles since January. The manufacturer of motorcycles, off-road vehicles, and boats named Michael Speetzen as CEO, and Bob Mack as CFO.

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  • Zipper69 The last "report" on the show was a string of cool photos without a single word of description, what was a new/revised model, what was a one-off, what was a look at 2026's styles.Throw a guy a bone here, man!
  • Zipper69 Seems the heavier models are most affected, did they cheap out and use same standards from the 1500's ?
  • Amber Lynn Williams I am interested in this nice vehicle 1988 gmc s15 jimmy 4x4 in I think I take it in put it in the car garage in it to the car shows too
  • Lou_BC ZR2 diesel ;)
  • Bd2 Odd that the article doesn't mention one of the biggest reasons for rising premiums (particularly in states like Louisiana and Florida) - the increase in losses by insurance/reinsurance companies due to the increase in Billion dollar extreme weather events. This also holds true for home insurance premiums.