In 1969, Bill Stroppe, the off-road racer who built the Big Oly Ford Bronco that won the Baja 1000 in 1969, worked with famed car designer Larry Shinoda on a project called the Boss Bronco. The two men wanted to sell Ford's president at the time, Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen, on a high-performance version of the three-year-old sport utility vehicle. Stroppe and Shinoda put a 351 Windsor V8 in the engine bay under a scooped hood, shifting through a three-speed Mustang transmission to limited-slip diffs on both axles and 4.11 gears, among numerous other upgrades. The automaker's board dismissed Bunkie before he could render judgment on the Boss Bronco. Ford hasn't put a V8 in its plans for the 2021 Bronco revival yet, at least not that we know of, and that isn't expected to change for the eventual Bronco Raptor. TFLnow reports via YouTube that PaxPower is ready to patch over that gap in the lineup, the Texas tuners developing a 2021 Bronco with a 5.0-liter Coyote V8 that would recapture the spirit of the concept Boss Bronco.
This would be a comprehensive overhaul in the engine bay, PaxPower saying none of the Bronco's current powertrain nor accessories modules work with the Coyote. Therefore, the 5.0-liter crate engine needs a new ten-speed transmission, the 10L80 unit hitched to the 2.3-liter four-cylinder and 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 engines that come with the Bronco said to be incompatible with the control modules in the V8. All peripheral systems, the exhaust, and all wiring get thrown out for new parts. The result is a $30,000 price for the entry-level tune that gets the V8-powered Bronco V8 400 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. At that point, the eight-cylinder has already outdone the most potent stock Bronco that puts down 310 hp and 400 lb-ft from the V6.
That's a lot of work and dosh for 90 horses and two more cylinders to brag about, so PaxPower is ready to lay a 2.9-liter supercharger in the intake path that pushes the V8 to 758 hp. The Jeep Wrangler recently teased with a 6.4-liter Hemi V8 is expected to come with 450 hp and 450 lb-ft., the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is good for 707 hp. PaxPower's V8 option takes the lead in output, then, but also in price: $45,000, on top of the cost of the donor Bronco. PaxPower says it's contemplating a manual transmission, which would help the exclusivity factor, but a row-your-own is still uncertain.
The first Bronco converts should be ready in the second quarter of next year, not long after Bronco deliveries begin. For a kinder cost-of-entry, PaxPower, the home of diesel Raptor conversions and the Ranger Raptor with imported OEM body panels, plans other performance, suspension and cosmetic parts for Ford's new SUV.
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