A new month, and a spree of vehicles new to me, but not necessarily brand new, though certainly full of eye-catching audience appeal. Today we’ll focus on the special edition Stroppe rendition of the current-generation, full-size Ford Bronco; later this month, the particularly striking Mercedes-Benz AMG GT 63, which you may have seen make a few quick transits through Summit County this week.

It was hard not to spot either vehicle, but the limited-edition 2025 Stroppe Bronco was impossible to miss, as it looks like an unofficial product for the Denver Broncos in its Code Orange body color — the first time that shade has been used on a non-Raptor vehicle.

No, no Elway, but a particularly vivid shade that’s designed to provide a historical nod to the hyper-capable Stroppe Baja Broncos that were built by Bill Stroppe in the late 1960s and early 1970s as customized off-roaders.

Those burly machines did indeed win the legendary Baja 1000 race, driven by Parnelli Jones and Stroppe serving as navigator. The 2025 renditions would probably get you almost anywhere you wanted to go, as they add nearly all of the modern Bronco’s higher-end Sasquatch performance equipment, minus the high-output engine found in a Raptor rendition.

The new Stroppe build is one of the few two-door-only Bronco variants, replacing what used to be the Wildtrak model in the once-vast Bronco lineup. That adds to its stubby but boisterous profile, which has been accentuated with 35-inch Goodyear Territory RT mud tires and glossy 17-inch black wheels, a matte-black hood and rear tailgate, plus bright orange tow hooks and a steel bumper.

Your overall storage room is a little limited in the two-door, with rear seats that require some athleticism to occupy, versus the relative ease of the four-door edition. The best plan would be to enlist a few friends and remove the hard top entirely during the summer – and maybe the doors, as well. Then you’d have all the elbow room you’d ever desire.

The Stroppe Bronco’s capabilities are further enhanced with electronically disconnecting stabilizing bars, and both the off-road-oriented HOSS 3.0 suspension upgrade and Fox internal bypass dampers. Power is provided by the more gutsy 2.7-liter EcoBoost twin-turbo V6, giving the chunky 4X4 330 horsepower and 415 lb-ft of torque.

As I found while driving the massive-feeling Bronco up to Loveland a few weeks back for the Overland Expo Mountain West show, and then on a couple of U.S. 285 trips to and from Breckenridge, that power is pretty adequate in keeping the vehicle and its 10-speed automatic transmission flying along.

The version I had mixes not-Broncos Orange with a not-Broncos Atlas Blue hardtop; other Stroppe editions can be found with Oxford White body color instead. 

The oversized side steps are removable if you’d like to authentically pound on the Bronco’s integrated rock rails. I personally did not, as much of the appeal of the new Stroppe edition is its pristine looks and shiny parts, which contributes to the vehicle’s $77,530 base price. Many have noted it’s unlikely these particular special collectors’ editions will be beaten up too thoroughly.

Feel more free to go at it with any of the seven other current Broncos, with prices still starting at $40,000, and power peaking at 418-hp in the full-blown Raptor edition. 

Andy Stonehouse’s column “Mountain Wheels” publishes Saturdays in the Summit Daily News. Stonehouse has worked as an editor and writer in Colorado since 1998, focusing on automotive coverage since 2004. He lives in Golden. Contact him at summitmountainwheels@gmail.com.