We took a BRONCO to ICELAND | The Legend Returns
Iceland was one of the first countries that Bronco was sold internationally back in 1966. It was the perfect vehicle for the harsh climate featuring the capability of a 4×4 vehicle while boasting the creature comforts of an enclosed, heated cabin; much needed for Iceland’s harsh winters. However, toward the later part of the century, Bronco ceased to be available for sale and hasn’t been available for sale (at least new at a dealer) since. So with that in mind, we set out to return the new Bronco to Iceland for the very first time.
You know if you would have told me two and a half years ago that bronco nation was going to take this insane vehicle to iceland circumnavigate the country be the first sixth gen bronco to reach the arctic circle outside of north america and return this incredible nameplate to a country iceland is one of the most unique and
Breathtaking landscapes we’ve ever seen now for much of the year in the winter the whole country is covered in snow but once all that snow melts it provides other you know ground covering plants like that to thrive now the majority of the country is made up of lava rock and lava rock like materials so there’s
Not a lot of trees there’s not a lot of tall shrubbery and stuff like that there’s a ton of just incredibly green moss and grass that gets really really bright around rivers a darker green and it just it looks unreal be like holy crap this feels like we’re know you’re driving through these dr seuss
Out of every you know crack and crevice now we get it’s a cool sexy country with beautiful scenery outside of you just wanting to go there bronco and why why would we take a vehicle to a place like this why ship it over a season go to iceland if you look back to the ford archives with bronco history bronco has a
Major part of its story told in iceland back in the 60s ford started shipping broncos over there excess ones that they had in the u.s that they couldn’t quite sell and it was a huge success they sold more broncos per capita iceland than anywhere else in the world iceland that has the closed cabin and it was
Very drivable off-roads and on-roads it was the most popular off-road vehicle in iceland over 800 broncos here in iceland this numbers by a single wheel so it was highly popular you go back and you see old ad campaigns you see an old found footage of gen 1 broncos stock gen 1 broncos you know conquering glaciers
And snow and river crossings so we wanted to go back and its history in the country but to tell who has preserved the history over the last beautiful in such great condition to today and be able to marry that early history with the so got to work started researching you know cold calling emailing companies
Okay who ships from the us to iceland what’s the process of importing it we actually discovered that iceland has a can temporarily import a foreign vehicle to locked in the shipping dates got the bronco to maine because that’s where the boat departed from from portland maine so we dropped it off august
1st and off it went the team will say they got updates for me almost hourly because i was so manic and was tracking the ship as it went from maine all the way to iceland every day and so was still in customs went back the next day called customs called the port authority talked to the people at enscape the shipping
Company that we used and eventually got the vehicle out and off we went uh it was a very exciting day to say the least because still until that moment you know i was like until we have the vehicle in our possession and we are driving in it in iceland i’m not going to believe this whole thing’s happening first
Thing we did after leaving reykjavik was go down to the westman islands got in a ferry there a car ferry loaded the bronco up and of course you know this is when the trip really started to sink in when you see those people’s reactions when you’re pulling onto the ferry and the ship’s crew is you know does a double
And triple take because they’re like you know what is this vehicle we’ve never seen it here before never taken it on the ferry it’s got u.s plates there’s people with cameras you know what’s going on and so that was when for us it really started to sink in that like wow weird you know this is something that we have the
Privilege established over the past couple years so being able to have those little moments with hundreds of people around the country um talk about the vehicle talk about bronco nation talk about the significance because they would mention you know we’ve only you know we’ve only had old broncos here before
I didn’t know the new ones were here and it was like well yeah this is the you know the start the dawn of a new era for the vehicle for us is bronco nation and for hopefully the and then we started on the f roads which are iceland’s off-road roads that kind of the country that are 4×4 only and so we knew
Broncos capabilities on a totally different style and surface if you’ve ever been to iceland you know the weather and the conditions change on an hour-by-hour basis and go from sunny to total white out rain sleet snow wind all the above so much but there’s certain things like weather that you can’t plan for encountered
Our first water crossing thankfully there’s a car in front of us that went through it we saw it was no big deal although it was like a unimog so it had much higher clearance and much larger tires than we had running 35s it was no big no big deal we went through it it was very excited we got our first one done and then
We progressed on and somewhere deeper than others somewhere more shallow some were longer the country does a great job of marking them markers on both sides to make sure okay you’re going through the center you’re not you know going and widening the trail you’re not causing undo you know erosion to the river
Foreign they take you around the back side kind of on the behind the scenes tour if you will of the country’s landscape and gives you a perspective and views of the terrain that the vast majority when you’re going into the sixth gen bronco had you know been to the arctic circle in alaska and canada but no 6th gen bronco
Had ever been to the arctic circle outside of north america so we knew that we as bronco nation would be the first to take a sixth gen bronco to visit the we headed to the very north of the country up to the fjords and there’s a little town called dalvik up in the north where there’s a ferry that on dalvik
Day four iceland and we’re getting on this ferry here glad i booked a reservation now grimsay is situated above the 6630 latitude which is the signifier of the arctic circle maybe 15 homes a couple small businesses that the families there rotate and operate got to the ferry that morning and immediately knew
It was going to be the experience of a lifetime it was a small boat definitely had some age on it looked i don’t know if it’s a nice break or not but i sure looked like it could break ice because it does run all year round a lot more remote a lot less tourists go up there and it’s and went and enjoyed the scenery rode
Up got there pulled off and uh began to explore the island we only had two hours and if we there until 7 pm the next day so we knew of dirt road that goes to the north got a coming down there’s only about 15 houses went to a little guest house a little coffee shop talked to the people who worked there the
One lady who runs the guest house also happens to run the gift shop it was just cool talking to these people asking about what it’s like living on the island we were due to head back a couple of the as we were making our way back over to the and with the back half of the ferry open we knew it was going to
Make for an epic setting ships wake and the island in the background and since it was a lighter crowd and the crew knew we were coming back they got a little more interested in the ship’s engineer in particular who spoke maybe five words of english after we had parked and gotten the vehicle kind of situated
Came up to me and said engine room engine room and i thought he wanted to show us you know the engine room of the ship and you know it was kind of a nerd for boats and planes and anything that moves i was like well that’d be cool so i was like okay let’s go to the engine room and then he points at the car and says engine
Room and i realized he was talking about kind of the engine pay and wanted to see the engine of the bronco under the hood popped the hood propped it up and he spent the next 30 minutes with his hands behind his back just meticulously inspecting the engine coming from a guy who works on these massive ships all
So interested in the mechanics and the inner workings of this engine so we all kind of just sat back and observed and watched as he was fascinated by this which is super cool for us to see and you know one by one more of the ship’s crew came out and examined the engine and they started asking questions you know what’s
What’s the horsepower european equivalents which of course i had no idea so we had some hats and so we took uh gave hat to the engineer and he immediately put it on even taken the tags off and so we went up um to the area where the passengers sit and just kind of watched him for the next three and a half
Hours as we sailed back and he wore that hat the entire time which was super cool despite where we’re from despite what languages we speak or don’t speak we’re all able to connect over this incredible vehicle which is what we have set out to do at bronco nation from the beginning anyways coolest connections we made on
The whole broncos of iceland was an instagram account that kept kind of popping up ever so often and with into early broncos and gen 1 broncos they had seen this broncos and iceland thing there’s this guy over there who has kind of helped to preserve the history and the story of these early gen 1 broncos
Since they were sold in the 60s and 70s you know i had talked with him that we would love to do a meet up we’d love to get the community together if people were interested out and have you know a bronco nation meet up the first one internationally and we had no expectations going in i mean we knew of the 1800s
So broncos that were sold over there you know maybe 400 still existed or were registered but we didn’t know how vibrant the community was we didn’t know you know was there a lot of enthusiasm about it was it just this one guy and we were like hey if you’re up for it we’d love to do a meet-up sunday morning he sends us a
Video and it was all these gen 1 broncos starting to line up at this beautiful classic car museum club called the cruiser club that they have over there for classic cars mostly focused on classic american cars and so we all looked at each other we’re like holy crap this is going to be epic we headed over there early
And we pulled in and it was i mean it was overwhelming how beautiful the vehicles were how many broncos were there how many people were there and how much effort and love they had put into this meetup the cruiser club we had never heard of it so it’s it takes up the whole floor bottom floor of this warehouse and it’s
This beautiful museum hangout place which is a ton of automobilia stuff you’d see you know barrett jackson auction neon signs vintage cars clocks old photographs you know there were pool tables they were you know old barber shop chairs and we’re at 66 signage just something at this incredible well-curated
A part of and have meetups every so often i’ve ever seen there was one that stood out it was the grandson of the original owner the uh his grandfather had purchased it new in iceland and i believe it was 66 or 69. w72 one of those years gen one bronco it was red white top and it stayed in the family since his
Grandfather had purchased it and in 2022 after you know over 50 years of being there it only had 44 000 kilometers on it and it was all original and it was the most beautiful genuine i’ve ever seen today we showed strength and it was the first and yeah maybe not the first but the biggest meeting in in reykjavik
There wasn’t one unifying factor um that kind of brought them all together until um while we were there was incredibly humbling and a massive honor bronco the new new one in iceland i think to buy one it’s all about giving the old generations a continuing story with a new vehicle one thing that ties it all together is the
People you know with the vehicles without the vehicles no matter what gen the people is what makes it special the people is what tells the story and brings it to life because it’s so much more than a trim or a vin or a you know a build or any of that because the end of the day we’re all bronco enthusiasm and
No matter what bronco you have or if you don’t even have a bronco that bronco name plate ties us all together and transcends cultures races political affiliations gender all of that stuff that’s all put to the side and we’re able to get together and build an incredible community an incredible passion around one singular
Thing and i think this was you know over the seven days that we were there talking to so many people this was a phenomenal representation of that and speaks to what this is all about at the end of the day if you take the vehicles away you take the trails away i mean all that laughter people and that’s what that’s
What this is all about for us foreign
Transcribed from video
We took a BRONCO to ICELAND! | The Legend Returns By The Bronco NationliveBroadcastDetails{isLiveNowfalsestartTimestamp2022-09-25T220010+0000endTimestamp2022-09-25T222211+0000}
