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The First Ford Bronco Raptor Sold For Way Less Than Expected
April 12, 2022
by Chase Bierenkoven Auctions / 2 Comments
In the age of million-dollar Tundra pickups, some might see this as an absolute bargain!
Let's face it. The Ford Bronco Raptor is a pretty special truck. It's like a Lamborghini for the off-roader in your life. Loud, meant to be seen in, and capable of stunning feats for athleticism. So when we heard that the first-ever Bronco Raptor was hitting the auction block at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach, we knew it was going to bring money. After all, BJ has a history of auctioning off first production versions of cars for seven figures on a regular basis.
In fact, we said, "someone was going to pay obscene money" for it. Well, someone has. To the tune of $350,000. Now that's neat and all, and we're very jealous of the new owner, but that's all rather irrelevant. The story here is that Ford didn't make a dollar on the sale of this, despite it fetching five times its base MSRP.
All fees were waived by Barrett-Jackson and Ford, and every last cent of the proceeds from the sale went to two incredibly important charities: Outward Bound and the National Forest Foundation. As global temperature averages continue to rise, preserving our forests is incredibly important. Both charities exist to educate the general populous about the importance of said outdoor spaces.
Given the outdoorsy nature of the Bronco Raptor, the two charities were an obvious choice for Ford. What better way to promote your off-road dune-crusher than by reminding its buyers of the importance of preserving their surroundings while enjoying their super-SUV off-road? It's certainly the right thing to do given the Bronco's size. It is, after all, a 5,733-lb, six-foot-tall, seven-foot-wide monster. The Bronco Raptor is the kind of machine that'll do some damage to its environment if not used responsibly.
Like its slightly larger Ford F-150 Raptor brother, the Bronco Raptor benefits from a host of changes to make it more capable. It gets a larger, 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 making 400+ horsepower (exact outputs haven't yet been confirmed), upgraded Fox shocks, a wider track, and all manner of trick differentials. And that's just the headline specs. The owner has certainly got something special on their hands.
The final spec of VIN 001 is yet to be confirmed, as the new owner will be choosing that in due course. The display model used at the auction was one of the pre-production promo units dressed in Code Orange paint with the optional graphics package.
Now let's just hope the rest of them aren't changing hands for as much as this when they hit the used market.
