Ford to add Raptor trim to Bronco in 2022

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Chip shortages and funky hardtops be damned, Ford is moving ahead with new variants of the hard-to-find Bronco. First out of the gate? A brawny Raptor trim set to appear sometime within the next calendar year.

The crew at Ford didn’t provide much detail on the new Bronco Raptor, save for a teaser video which showed a shadowy vehicle sending sand and dirt aloft in magnitudes that would satisfy the sanitation needs of at least a dozen Burmese cats.

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Using slo-mo to view the quick camera pan across Raptor’s nose, we see a trio of marker lights living atop the truck’s grille, a telltale sign this best could measure more than 80 inches wide.

While it’s possible the lamps were simply added to provide styling consistency across the Raptor sub-brand, your author does not think this is the case, since it would be seen as window-dressing by rabid Blue Oval off-road fans.

Adding to the speculation, a freeze-frame from the dust cloud shows just a glimpse of the Bronco Raptor’s left-front corner, where we find an enormous set of fender flares sticking out like a spoilt child’s bottom lip. Currently, the largest tire size available from the factory is a 35-inch tall hoop on a 315-mm section. Suspension tweaks worthy of the Raptor name will likely permit extra rubber height and width.

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It’s turned into a game of cat-and-mouse with the Wrangler, which is great news for off-road gearheads such as your author. Ford and Jeep seem hell bent on one-upping each other in this segment, with the latter stuffing a 6.4L V8 under the hood of its machine merely in response to the Bronco’s appearance earlier this year.

Jeep once offered one of the biggest off-road tires available on any factory machine, until Ford rolled up with 35-inch meats in the Sasquatch package. Jeep promptly responded with 35-inchers of its own as part of an Xtreme Recon bundle.

In short, it’s a great time to be an avid off-roader.