When Ford built the Bronco, it aimed directly at the Harvester International Scout and the Jeep CJ-5 and did a great job.
The blue-oval brand had little experience in building all-terrain vehicles. It made some of the WWII Willy’s Jeeps, but it didn’t design them. For the Bronco, the carmaker did ample research and talked with 10,000 owners of off-road vehicles from 300 clubs. It gathered all the data, and it made the Bronco.

With a squared-looking bodywork and a flat windshield, the Bronco I was designed to be a comfortable, two-seat vehicle, with the front fenders peaking up above the hood so the driver could see where the car’s corners were. The car didn’t have doors or a roof above in the base model. Behind the bench seat, the carmaker added a metallic panel that divided the passenger area from the cargo bed in the back and mounted the spare wheel on it. The Bronco featured bucket seats at the front, a bench in the back, and a removable fiberglass cover with side windows for the rear passengers on the upper trim levels.

Under the hood, the 1966 Bronco received the inline-six, 170 ci (2.8-liter) engine. Later that year, the carmaker added the 289 V-8 that provided 200 horses. Ford tried to keep the production costs low and installed a three-speed manual on the steering column for the 1966 model plus a transmission lever on the floor for the two-speed transfer case with shift-on-the-fly featured, which allowed the driver to change from 2WD in 4WD without stopping the vehicle. Although, it had to work on the front locking hubs. The carmaker added a three-speed automatic and other engine versions later on.