The 2025 Ford Bronco Stroppe can take you up mountains AND to Starbucks drive-thru's! **EMOTIONAL**

Next to me is the Ford Bronco Strop Edition. Name another car you can get four exterior colors on at the same time. Strop is to Bronco like Shelby is to Mustang, performance heritage tied to a guy who did some cool stuff. Bill Strop was a racing legend in the 60s and 70s, and Ford actually sold a Bronco built for Baja racing from 1971 to 1975, paying tribute to his success. Now, a few years into the revived new generation Bronco, the Strop Edition has arrived. Actually, around the same time, Bill Strop was recently inducted into the Motorsport Hall of Fame. Well deserved. Under the hood, you'll find Ford's twin turbo 2.7 liter V6. And this is significant because for the 2025 model year, this is the only way you can get the big engine in the little two-door Bronco. Other lesser trims can be equipped with a 2.3 liter four-cylinder turbo, which I would actually be interested in because those smaller engines can be equipped with a seven-speed manual. You also get upgraded suspension, or Haas 3.0 as they call it, with 2.5 inch Fox internal bypass dampers, kind of like the first gen F-150 Raptor had back in the day. The Sasquatch package is standard, providing the 35 inch tires, 17 inch beat lock capable wheels, front and rear locking axles, B&O sound system, heated leather seats, and steering wheel. There's auxiliary switches galore for controlling external mods, USB ports on the dash for powering your action cameras or whatever you want, and plenty of places to mount gear and plenty of character with orange accents extending to the inside and a classic badge and white dash to remind you of the original Strop Bronco. It's got all the bells and whistles standard, including this paint job. Ruminant to the original one, it's orange, white, and blue. Code orange, oxford white, and atlas blue to be specific. Then the hood is wrapped matte black, which is functional, preventing glare, and the tailgate matches the hood. So no, they are not the exact original colors from the Bronco back in the day, but they are from Ford's current color palette. In fact, this code orange is basically the Raptor orange color. And I love it. I love seeing brightly colored cars out on the road. And out on the road is where this gets a lot of attention. There's something commanding about driving such a capable vehicle, even though not that many Bronco owners take them off-road. Many do, and props to you. But the on-road feeling is actually really pretty good. I mean, I don't have any road feel per se, but I know it's there. It has plenty, plenty of power and great low torque for off-roading and low gears, and to each their own. Who doesn't love power? But I'm personally not the biggest fan of the 10-speed automatic. The calibration makes it feel like it's sometimes searching for gears, you know the phrase, drop a gear and disappear? Well, with this, it's like, okay, foot down, drop four gears, don't raise a gear, then disappear. At least I have the power to disappear. That's pretty good. These Haas 3.0 shocks really do just soak up every bump in the road. Although these tires do pick up some debris, so that's something to be considered. Hopefully no one behind you loves their windshield that much. Wind noise, that's kind of inevitable. You're in a Bronco. And that's why, normally, I would take the top, the doors, everything off. The sound system isn't amazing, even with the upgraded speakers, but that's a worthy compromise for such an off-road focused vehicle. I mean, the doors even come off. With no speakers in the door, I still think it's decent. Backseat space is also surprisingly decent. Only two across, but adults or kids alike can enjoy it. And there's some actual usable storage capacity behind the seats. And storage is especially good with seats down, at least for such a small SUV. And on a trail, man, this thing is amazing. I know this is not like a hardcore trail per se, but I've done a lot of aggressive hardcore trails in basically identical Broncos. They can do it all, from soft roading to aggressive rock crawling. And of course, you have various goat modes, as they call them, go over any terrain. And that'll allow you to really dial in your off-road settings for the trail you're on. You just get that kind of invincible feeling when you're off-road in something like this, which can be dangerous. You're not invincible, but you can do a lot. You can almost go over any terrain. And I gotta say, having the matte black hood does genuinely help with the sun glare. It's practical. God, man, that is intense. So whether you are looking to do some hobbyist Baja racing or simply drive to the mall with the roof and doors off, this can do it all. Special editions like this really do tell a cool story. And who doesn't love the power of an off-road race truck? But for me, I'd probably opt for a lower level trim with the smaller engine and a seven-speed manual so I can row my own gears to the Starbucks drive-thru. There's no shame in that. But if you're in the market and just want some nerdy info, data, pricing, etc., go to kbb.com for a fair purchase price, and we'll see you next time.