We warned you, villagers, that the leaky dam holding back spy photos of the 2021 Ford Bronco had burst, and the flood of hype is headed straight for your screen. Friday brought a glimpse of the rear end, Monday saw the first blurry picture of the whole truck sans camouflage, and late Tuesday afternoon, a second set of photographs hit the forums with our clearest look yet at the four-door 2021 Bronco—plus a peek at the two-door model with its roof removed.
The ever productive community at Bronco6G.com surfaced these two images from The Raptor Connection on Instagram, which look to have been taken at a Ford engineering facility. We reached out to Ford to confirm their authenticity, and we’ll update if the automaker changes its no-comment stance on Bronco leaks. High-quality front and rear three-quarter views show off a number of details that weren’t apparent in Monday’s leak, most notably the removable hardtop. There appear to be seams in the roof marking separate pop-out panels over the front and back seats, while the top’s rear third likely comes off in one piece.
That’d be a step up over the four-door Jeep Wrangler’s hardtop configuration, which only has those panels over the front row for a quasi-targa effect and a larger, more cumbersome rear. Given how the 2021 Bronco’s roof seems to run down to the top of the window openings, there’s also a good chance its removable doors are frameless up top; those one-piece bottom pieces would be easy to store in the rumored onboard carrier when you want the full open-air experience.
This black Bronco looks to be a normal trim setup compared to the SEMA-esque lifted truck shown on Monday, wearing street-oriented tires on standard rims. But the good news is that even this configuration preserves excellent approach and departure angles with high-and-tight bumpers and an appropriate amount of sidewall on those tires. The wide unpainted fender flares are visible here too—it’s unclear whether those are an option.
It’s also our first view of the 2021 Ford Bronco with the hood down, and thus our first uninterrupted look at its overall design. From the rear, it does give off a bit of a Grand Theft Auto generic Jeep vibe with the rear-mounted spare, though the vertically-oriented taillights are a clear Ford marker for anyone who knows the model’s history. But the front view shows how Ford really nailed a standout look that draws heavily on the past without getting cartoonish or falling into uncanny valley territory. It’s its own thing, simple and thoughtful all at once. I’d love to see one with a painted hardtop.
And man, that great, broad mesa of a hood is a welcome sight. We still don’t expect anything bigger than Ford’s 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 (making 325 horsepower/400 lb-ft of torque in the F-150) under there at launch, but it sure looks like a V8 would fit in there. That’s pure speculation, of course. We’re also left to guess at the function of those weird loops mounted on top of the front fenders. Tie-downs? Grab handles for extremely dangerous stunts? Impossible to say right now.
If all that’s not enough, there’s one more surprise hiding in the background. Visible over the four-door’s hood is the two-door Bronco with its roof removed, showing the underlying roll bar setup in its entirety.
The 2021 Ford Bronco is still scheduled to officially debut sometime later this month, but let’s be real: it’s pretty much already here.
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