Ford must be taking a page from the collector sneaker game, with rare colors, secretive and mysterious options, and limited runs. The 4×4 scene is now more competitive than maybe ever before with the slew of new off-roaders like the Gladiator, the Wrangler, and the newest-gen Defender. The 2021 Ford Bronco has kicked up more dust in the corral of the off-roading world than any others. It feels like every few months since the Bronco’s reveal in July, Ford has been throwing out new options and specifications – and I ain’t mad about it. 

Thunder (lightning) struck for the Ford Bronco

This past Friday, Ford threw out a pair of tweets that grabbed the attention of early Bronco orderers. For the folks who ordered one of the 7,000 new 2021 Ford Bronco First Edition Models, Ford tweeted that they now have the exclusive option to get their Bronco in the limited edition “Lightning Blue” paint color. 

First Edition 2021 Ford Bronco owners will be able to flex their early adoption of the newest generation Bronco humbly. No having to explain that you know its an early gen because of some different stitching on the interior, or they made lug nuts out of some other material or another obscure feature only known by the nerdiest of us. Ford gave these early orderers a clear badge of street cred. 

“Testing 37-inch hooves!”

A fancy limited color isn’t the only news Ford released on twitter before the weekend. Ford also tweeted, “Testing 37-inch hooves!” accompanying a photo of a Ford Bronco prototype with a monster set of 37-inch tires. That’s right! Ford is telling us that there will be an option for 37-inch tires from the factory. According to MotorTrend, the camouflaged Bronco in the tweet appears to be the Raptor/Warthog performance version. 

Like so many things surrounding the 2021 Ford Bronco, there are still several questions. Will these monster tires be available for any model or only the higher-end performance models? Will that affect the sasquatch package? Also, will there be more limited model-specific colors or graphics packages? So many questions, and, well, I guess there’s enough time, but that not the point. We wanna know!

So, where does that leave us? 

Well, it would seem the 2021 Ford Bronco has its sights set firmly on the Jeep Wrangler. The number of options, packages, and special limited features is akin to nothing other than the long history of the Jeep Wrangler and CJ. As MotorTrend nicely points out, the largest tire package available for the Wrangler is a meager 33-inch option when compared to the monster footprint of the 37-inch tire package from the 2021 Ford Bronco. If this is meant to be a battle for the king of the rough track, I am here for it!