Golden Icon: Parnelli Jones' Timeless Big Oly Bronco - - Competition - Racing and Rock Crawling

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Golden Icon: Parnelli Jones' Timeless Big Oly Bronco
Publish date: Nov 1, 2007
By:  Matt Emery
Source: Dirt Sports
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In every sport there are icons that not only define an era, but are also unparalleled in their timelessness. Their image, be it people or machinery, somehow transcend the past to become treasures of today. Proving this also holds true in off-road racing is the unmistakable beauty and grace of Parnelli Jones' priceless Big Oly Bronco–a machine worthy of the term "icon."


With the full tubular, space-frame chassis made from TIG-welded, 4130 chromoly steel and equipped with a hand-laid fiberglass body, the Big Oly Bronco represents state-of-the-art design in off-road racing hardware, circa 1970 and beyond. Many ideas found on this rig are still used today, not the least of which is having big-dollar sponsorship.
And with a fate similar to many history-changing vehicles, Big Oly almost never came to be. Jones initially drove a stock, though race-prepped, Stroppe Bronco in his first races, but the hard-driving Jones left pieces of the Bronco strewn all over the landscape. Jones thought the vehicle was too high, too heavy and too slow so wanted to make some radical changes. Concerned what Ford would think of a pure-race Bronco (and a 2WD version at that), Bill Stroppe told Jones he wouldn't build what the Indy winner had envisioned. Only later did Bill find out one of his own employees, Dick Russell, and Jones had been constructing the truck (from plans the two had sketched on napkins over lunch) in secret at Russell's garage. Though not at all happy, Stroppe allowed the truck to be transferred and finished back at his Long Beach, Calif., shop.


Utilizing twin I-Beam suspension that saw radius arms mounted forward of the I-Beams rather than at the stock rearward location, Russell's design gave the Bronco improved handling characteristics and 12-plus inches of travel. Indy Car-style Halibrand "knock-off" hubs were used, and specially-made Firestone Parnelli 1000 tires were mounted to U.S. Mag aluminum wheels.
With the project out in the open, Jones and Russell were free to let their imaginations run wild. The result is a vehicle that not only dominated during its time, it transformed the sport into desert racing as we know it today. So when it came time for the staff here at Dirt Sports to decide which vehicle would grace the pages of our celebratory 40th Anniversary Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 issue, there was only one rig that came to mind–just one truck that literally brings revered silence to all who simply look upon it. There is only one Big Oly Bronco, and that's why it serves as this month's Masterpiece In Metal.

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Source: Dirt Sports, 11/1/2007
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