Icon announces new, old Ford Bronco 'Old School'

This looks like I’m obsessed with resto-mods and old-things-with-new-bits-inside, but now we’ve entered a slightly odd situation in which we’re now getting sub-genres within sub-genres. Meta-genres, if you will. And yes, I’m back banging on about Jonathan Ward’s Bronco builds at Icon. But hey, they’re very hard to get bored with.

What we have here is what happens when your resto-mod has too much mod and not enough resto. Apparently, some of Ward’s customers weren’t overly keen with the amount of attention the full-on ‘BR’ series Ford Bronco remixes get out in the real world (the ones with architectural glass, Lear jet sunvisors, funky modern paint and Nike-made jewellery). Which has led him to design the ‘Old School Series’ cars.

So what you have here is a Bronco with a restored - rather than modified - stock body, period gloss paint in 60s/70s palettes, stock-looking wheels (although they’re actually an 18-inch 4-slot item custom made to clear the big brakes) and interior, repro grilles and trim, the whole bit.

Of course, it’s not quite what it seems, because although the vehicle might look like a simple period-correct (ish) restoration, the OSS cars still have Fox Racing coilovers, Brembo brakes, power steering and proper air-con, as well as Ford’s 426bhp 5.0 ‘Coyote’ V8 from the current Mustang. The interior is re-worked with Icon’s ‘no plastic’ ethos, and the modern conveniences are more authentically wrapped in the old school trim. Those headlights, for instance, have the period correct bezels/lenses, but are actually LED.

So it’s a car that leans much more heavily towards the resto than the mod, leaving a car that’s much prettier and lighter aesthetically than the BR-series (pic 18, above). It seems like a small difference, but you see exactly where he’s going with it. Personally, I’m still keen on the BR variants, but simply because a) I drove one across Pismo Dunes in California a few years ago, and it’s still on my all-time favourite car list and b) I’ve seen enough restored Broncos to last me a lifetime. But which would you go for? Subtle, or less so?