Brakes Off On the Road
Or, we'll never know what we never knew.
I was turning out left out of the parking garage at Illinois’ Rosemont Convention Center after attending an event there and I might have been going too fast.
“Hey, Parnelli Jones, slow it down!” shouted the cop directing traffic, as I careened past him.
Parnelli Jones. It had been a few decades since I’d heard that name. Dad knew him. And Bill Stroppe, too.
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Dad was a product development engineer specializing in brakes at Ford and worked on Bronco in the early 1970’s. Parnelli Jones was a legendary race car driver and racing team owner. Bill Stroppe—who has been referred to as the “Carol Shelby of the 4x4 world—was an off-road racing pioneer and a builder who contributed much to the development of the Ford Bronco.
Bill Stroppe was also the one responsible for getting Parnelli Jones into off-road racing, which ultimately led to them winning the Baja 1000 and Baja 500 in 1970 and 1973. (The Baja 1000 and 500 are challenging off-road races held on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico, where various classes of vehicles travel hundreds miles across harsh desert terrain.)
Note: If you love racing, seek out a copy of Parnelli Jones’ autobiography, As a Matter of Fact, I am Parnelli Jones. It’s fantastic.
The Bronco had been in production since 1966, but to capitalize on its performance at Baja, and engage off-road enthusiasts, Ford began offering a special-edition “Baja Bronco” in 1971. (Nice deep dive on how that came about here.)
At the dealer, a buyer would tick the “Stroppe package” box on the order form and Ford would send the semi-complete vehicle to Bill Stroppe’s shop in Long Beach, California. There it would be outfitted with a reinforced chassis and upgraded suspension, among other things.
The Stroppe Broncos also sported a distinctive paint scheme: Wimbeldon White, Astra Blue (roof) and Calypso Coral (aka Poppy Red). Only 650 were made, and since they were marketed as off-road ready, not many of them have survived. At this writing, a 1973 Stroppe “Baja Bronco” is listed on the duPont registry for $174,800 USD.
***
Dad traveled a lot when we were kids, often two weeks out of four. Mostly to the west coast, either Los Angeles or to Kingman, Arizona about 25 miles southwest of the Yucca Proving Grounds. He loved Arizona and its warm, sunny weather. He complained about the smog in LA.
In LA, he would run Los Angeles City Traffic (LACT) tests, a specific route run on public streets and highways that was designed to simulate real-world driving conditions. It featured a number of very steep hills that under the right circumstances could lead to brake failure.
One day, I asked Dad if the brakes ever went out on a vehicle he was testing. He said, “Yes. I put a truck through the test track wall once.”
First I’d hear of it.
Dad worked in a building that was across the street from my high school and so if we had to stay late, he would give us a ride home. This day he diverted to an access road near Greenfield Village with an undulating red brick wall. On the other side of the wall were the Ford Proving Grounds. He slowed the car down and pointed to a place where the bricks in the wall had clearly been repaired.
When I asked him when it had happened he just said, “Oh, a while ago.”
I think there was a lot I didn’t know about my Dad.
***
Dad visited Bill Stroppe when he was in LA but I know he also went to Baja California with Stroppe and Jones. Was he there in his capacity as a Ford engineer, or just helping out? Did he go on a Baja pre-run? Ride in one of the chase cars?
Stroppe passed away in 1995 and we lost Dad in 2016. I just missed Jones, who passed away in June of 2024 at the age of 90.
There’s no one left to ask.
Still, I like to imagine my Dad in a Bronco off-roading with Parnelli Jones at the wheel. Did it happen? Probably. Possibly. Truth is…I hope so.
***
There’s a old Polaroid of 11-year old me in a Baja Bronco T-shirt Dad brought back from one of his trips. (I’m including just the T-Shirt because I don’t want the original image vacuumed up by an LLM who will do with it who knows what.) If anyone reading this has one of these shirts in the back of a drawer somewhere, I’d love to have it.
