2022 Ford Bronco Raptor: Easter Eggs and surprise features
Cars
Speaker 1: So you've already watched our full first look video. Now that we've got a little bit of extra time, I wanted to show you some of the clever extra offroad touches for this vehicle, as well as a couple little Easter eggs that they've mixed in just for the Raptor, moving from nose to tail. Let's take a second to focus on front lighting because Bronco Raptor is so wide. It needs additional Amber clearance lights to be legal. Those are integrated into the new higher airflow grill. [00:00:30] That's kind of obvious, but interestingly Ford has switched out the other forward facing lighting to Amber two, including the round accent, lighting on the headlamps and additional forward marker lights on the side mirrors. Oh, and be sure to check out Raptor's new hood. It's made of sheet mold compound, and it's got an inset power dome with heat extractors. You'll have to look really closely for an Easter egg, but on the air vent veins, you'll find a series of dates, 19 67, 69, 71 and 72.
Speaker 1: [00:01:00] Those of the years of Bronco's Baja, once thousand wins move along the side and you can't help. But notice those running boards at first, their presence might seem odd on a hardcore off rotor where clearance is everything. They're not an accessory though. They're standard. Fortunately they do more than make it easier to get in and out. They're integrated into a pair of four performance rock sliders giving you additional under protection. You can use the sidesteps on the daily and then just unbolt them and leave them in the garage. When you need the extra [00:01:30] clearance and protection of the rock rails. When you're out climbing over rocks and obstacles, Raptor's design manager, Ryan Olson tells me that his team arrived at this clever solution when they took an early prototype home. And one of the designers' wive couldn't easily climb up into the vehicle. Remember Raptors sits even taller than a regular Bronco SAS watch, which is already challenging for lots of shorter people.
Speaker 1: Let's hope Ford offers this clever dual function part through their performance catalog for other Broncos, including a shorter one, [00:02:00] just for two doors. Okay. While we're by the let's take a quick peek inside the Raptor features additional bracing. That Ford is calling the Bebo for short, it's an aluminum extrusion with cast feet and along with an additional brace at the rear, it boosts the body and White's torsional rigidity by a whopping 50% importantly. It's also designed for helmet clearances, and it's thin enough and far back enough that you won't really notice it from the driver's seat. That means you should still get [00:02:30] a great open air feeling when you have the hard tops roof sections out. Incidentally, those roof panels are the same as on other Broncos with as wide as those rear offenders are rock strikes and scuffs are going to be a effective life, especially with those NBI BF Goodrich K oh two S Ford understands this.
Speaker 1: So they've integrated these replaceable stone Peck guards clips are molded into the part and they can be released by pulling or by pushing on the clips by using a small screwdriver from the backside. I'm guessing the aftermarket will use [00:03:00] this for a bunch of different looking alternative designs too. Okay. Here's another quick Easter egg because of the big vendors which are removable and also made out of sheet molding compound, by the way, the Raptor gets its own smaller fuel door, pop the door open and above the capless fuel fill. You'll find another little surprise. A pictogram the original Baja winning 69 Bronco as well as the 2019 R race truck. And this new Raptor, regular Broncos have pictograms as well, but they depict the original Bronco's [00:03:30] body styles. Okay. We're finally run back and it's at the tail end where the Raptor reveals some of its biggest and most unexpected changes.
Speaker 1: We redesigning. One thing in a new vehicle often leads to a cascade of downstream decisions and changes. And that is certainly the case here. First off, you've obviously got a bigger, full size spare. In fact that 37 inch tire is so big and so heavy that Ford had to reinforce the carrier. That's this steel part here look closely though. And you'll see, it says accessory red [00:04:00] Ford has included some extra amounts for added functionality. Maybe you want add an offer, a Jack or a set of recovery boards. Now you've got an easy place to Mount them. That bigger wheel also means that Ford has had to redesign the chisel, the center high mounted stop lamp to fit the bigger BFG. If you swing the gate open, you'll see it's got a wrapper logo in blazon on the inside only backwards that's so you can read it in your rear view mirror, you know, in case you forget what you're driving the most unexpected change is probably to the taillights.
Speaker 1: They're [00:04:30] completely different design and they stick out further than the flatter simpler units on other Broncos. Now these units are brighter, but that's only part of their story because spare tire is so much wider. It blocks visibility of the standard taillights. When they're viewed from certain off angles, in order to keep those taillights legal Ford had to redesign the housings to stand prouder of the swing gate for improved visibility. The new lights also include the bliss sensors for blind spot monitoring, like an F-150. Those are the kind of UN gainly protuberances on the side. [00:05:00] It also means that these fixtures are going to be big bucks. If you crack one. So you might wanna invest in some taillight yards, okay, last one or two they're combined. The Raptor has a totally unique tow hitch that allows it to tow 4,500 pounds, a helpful 1000 pounds more than any other Bronco thing is if you already ownable Ronco, you can't simply swap in this beef of your hardware to get the extra capacity because it won't fit. The new receiver has additional underbody [00:05:30] brace brackets, and that's only possible because the Raptor's exhaust system is totally different from other models. Normally there's a big muffler can back there getting in the way, but that has been moved between the wheel base because of Raptors multimode dual exhausts. So those are just a handful of the fun and functional updates made to this 22 Bronco Raptor to my eye. You do lose a lot of the retro charm of the original design, but if you're good with this new look that
Speaker 2: Puts the bro in Bronco, you're going to gain a ton of capability [00:06:00] and smarts and not all of those benefits are going to be immediately obvious. The fact that you're likely to discover new tweaks and Easter eggs for years to come makes this new Bronco Raptor that much cooler.
