16
THEY’VE MADE
THE FIRST-GEN
BRONCO FULLY
ELECTRIC,
PUSHING OUT
UP TO 600HP
from $185,000 / zerolabs.com
Hmm, where have I seen one of
those before?
Flashback to June 1994, and hardly
anybody this side of the Atlantic
had heard of the Ford Bronco...
then OJ ‘The Juice’ Simpson led
the California Highway Patrol
on a bizarre slow-speed ‘chase’
down several freeways and turned
Ford’s SUV into one of the most
recognisable automobiles in the
world. The pursuit was screened
live to 95 million viewers in America
alone, even interrupting coverage
of an NBA finals game.Ah yes, ‘The People v OJ Simpson’.
So what’s new here?
Californian car tamperers Zero
Labs have taken the classic
first-generation Bronco (1965-’77)
and furnished it with a fully electric
18,000rpm powertrain pushing
out up to 600hp. It comes in
factory steel for a cool $185k,
or carbon fibre for a finger-burning
$240k – although that model
is faster and lighter, and has
increased range. You’ll also get
custom-engineered suspension
and Brembo brakes.Is it modern on the inside too?
One reviewer has described the
interior as “Rolls-Royce quality”,
and there’s even an option for
vegan seating – so, unlike in OJ’s
Bronco, no blood has been spilt.Whatever do you mean?
OJ and his pal Allen Cowlings owned
matching white Broncos (cute), but
The Juice had left his at the murder
scene with blood inside. So even
though he absolutely did not kill
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron
Goldman, OJ jumped into Cowlings’Bronco clutching a gun and the pair
took rozzers on a 60-mile tour of
the LA highway system before the
non-murderer handed himself in.
With this version, he could have
stretched that out to 190 miles.And who are Zero Labs?
The company is run by a former
marketing exec, Adam Roe. They’re
next-door neighbours with Elon
Musk’s SpaceX plant, so heaven
knows what they chat about over
the garden fence. “How did he get
away with it?”, perhaps.ZERO LABS FORD BRONCO
[^ WordsDoug^
Shields]