Bronco Cryptozoology #16: The Bronco Popemobile

Cryptozoology is the study of mythical creatures that may or may not exist.

This applies to Broncos how? Well, there is a lot of mystery and myths surrounding certain Bronco models and specialty-built Broncos.

So, this new segment at the blog will focus on these prototypes, one of a kind, special editions and the most historical Broncos ever built.

To keep the posts short, we will include only a brief story of each

We will try to separate fact from fiction and possibly come up with more questions than answers.

At first, I was going to compile this into one post, but it got waaay too long.

Over the years many vehicles have been built to allow the Pope to visit the masses al fresco.

In 1980 the Pontiff (Pope John Paul II) had a planned visit to New York and Ford Motor Company rolled out the red carpet and even built him a special 1980 Bronco.

Believe it or not, during the introduction to the new Bronco at Ford's New York offices, the Pope asked if Ford could build him a classic Bronco as he always liked them. When the Pope asks for something......you oblige him.

Ford found a low milage 1976 Bronco at a dealer in Maine to build for him.

After the modifications, the Bronco was shipped to the Vatican.

The following year (1981) Pope John Paul II was making a visit to the Catholic population in Nigeria and needed vehicles that could traverse the desert to get to the seminaries in the smaller villages.

It was the perfect job for the 1976 Bronco Popemobile.

It was prepped for duty and the famous bullet proof glass box was installed.

The Bronco returned to the Vatican after the trip and has not been seen since.

This story is part fabrication, Ford did build the '80 Bronco, but not the '76.

The true story is this Bronco was prepared for the Italian movie Le Comiche 2. The Pope in the scenes is not the real pontiff.