Bronco

Make
Ford
Segment
SUV

Last year at SEMA 2019, Jay Leno unveiled his dramatically modified 1968 Ford Bronco which, among many other upgrades, most notably had a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 engine squeezed under the hood. Now, we get to see and hear a lot more of this ballistic Bronco as Leno shared the details of the project in a video.

The Bronco was given to Leno by fellow talk show host Craig Ferguson when it was painted in an ordinary shade of red and looked a lot more like the classic Bronco we know. That was before Leno had his way with the SUV and totally transformed it into something that the all-new Bronco would be fearful of.

If you want to skip the nitty gritty in the almost half-an-hour-long video, Leno gets behind the wheel at around the 23-minute mark and shows us what this Bronco can do. The V8 has no trouble lifting the Bronco's nose under hard acceleration, which is a lot like the experience in a power boat, one of the comparisons Leno uses to describe the sensation.

Partnering with Ford Performance, Leno's Bronco was blessed with a 5.2-liter supercharged V8 that makes 760 horsepower. With that kind of power, the original chassis wouldn't have coped so a new one was supplied by Kincer Chassis. It also has Fox 2.0 factory race series shocks, Dutchman Motorsports axle shafts, and special coilovers. A five-speed Tremec manual gearbox is fitted, and the elongated, old-school gear lever is a bizarre sight.

In the rest of the upgraded cabin, Leno and his team kept things simple, retaining the sparse dashboard and the original steering wheel. Even the new radio was hidden in the center console to keep the interior looking as stripped-down as possible. However, the cupholders and classy finishes are a clear sign that this isn't an original '68 Bronco.

Much like Osprey Custom Cars that recently revealed its custom Land Rover Defender, Leno's Bronco restomod works because it looks so much like the original, yet is an entirely different beast under the skin. Mustang drivers, beware.