Sunday, November 1, 2026

Where are they now? Pt. 6 Blue Thunder

This Bronco has a long history that ties together the Hearst Castle, Holman & Moody-Stroppe, Viva Broncos and K-Bar-S.

The Bronco was one of the first ones sent to Bill Stroppe for modifications, it was at the first Tierra Del Sol rally and was featured on the cover of Stroppe's first catalog


After being used for a publicity event at the Hearst Castle, it was sold to Ed Perry, the owner of a So-Cal Tire shop.

Ed's son raced in the Baja 1000 in 1968, but didn't want to drive it back. Hal Sealand (the "S" in K-Bar-S) offered to fly to La Paz and drive the Bronco back.




Ed sold the Bronco to Hal after the 1969 season was over. Hal added some modifications to it including a v-8 motor and continued to race the Bronco off and on.

In 1974 Kurt Strecker of Viva Broncos convinced Hal to let him build it into a "real" off-road racer. 

While the Bronco was in pieces, Kurt was moving his shop from Lakeside to Santee (CA). During the move, the Bronco's body tub (an original Budd & Co roadster) fell off the trailer and was destroyed.

The Bronco was rebuilt by Ken Rice and 10" added to the wheelbase and a new fiberglass body. The Bronco continued to race into the late-80's thanks in part to a sponsorship from K-Bar-S. It became one of the longest raced Broncos in history.



The Bronco was sold to someone in Texas, where, after a crash it sat until it was rescued by Ed Gudenkauf in 2009.


Gudenkauf restored the Bronco to its 1980's race trim and showed it off at SEMA



Monday, October 26, 2026

Black Broncos Pt 2

 Black is not the best choice for a 4-wheel drive vehicle, it is a very unforgiving color, showing all the dirt, scratches and dents. This is probably why you see fewer black classic Broncos then the other colors.

The factory only offered one shade of black: "Raven Black" and it was offered every year except 1972. Strange, I wonder if someone at Ford thought it wasn't popular anymore or maybe they forgot to include it in the paint options. 

Raven Black is one of the only colors to have never changed during the 66-77 production run.

Anyway, here are some more sinister, murdered, black Broncos.

We will start with this Halloween themed photo from Velocity Motorsports