Ford Bronco R Race Prototype

First of all, I'm sorry that these are the only pictures that I took of the Ford Bronco R race prototype that competed in the Baja 1000 in both 2019 and 2020. Don't know what exactly happened here, other than I got distracted. This was parked near Ford's outdoor display of several Broncos and close to the off-road driving course Ford had set up in the parking lot. I had a lot to look at!

Anyway, for those of you that don't know, Ford specially built this race prototype to compete in the Baja 1000 in 2019. The prototype vehicle was designed and built by Ford Performance and Geiser Brothers, a company known for its championship off-road racing trucks.

The desert race is one of the most grueling off-road races in the world. It covers close to a thousand miles of the harsh desert terrain of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico, and participants must navigate sand dunes, rocky terrain, and treacherous river crossings.

The Bronco R Race Prototype was built to showcase the capabilities of the all-new 6th generation Bronco. The prototype features a fully stock version of the Bronco's 2.7-liter EcoBoost turbocharged engine and Ford's 10-speed SelectShift automatic transmission.  Tucked underneath is a race version of the Bronco High-Performance Off-Road Stability Suspension (HOSS) System with a redesigned independent front suspension and five-link race-prepped rear setup. Longer-travel Fox racing shocks with bypass dampers are installed front and rear, and Fox pneumatic bump stops are mounted at all four corners.

In 2019, the Bronco R Race Prototype performed well, but it was forced to retire due to a cooling issue. The team was determined to come back stronger in 2020, and they came back and finished 2nd in Class 2 (although there was only one other entry in the class) and 70th out of 99 total finishers. Note that this is not necessarily a bad finish - many times only about half the entries make it to the finish line...