The Bronco Is Back, Thanks to a Group of Obsessed Ford Employees

Dan Schaffer, a four-wheel-drive engineer at Ford Motor Co., gets into an SUV, points it up a steep and slippery dirt hill, and hits the gas. It lurches into action, but halfway up the 45-degree climb it bogs down. Schaffer pounds the pedal, and it continues its ascent, as if it had just been catching its breath.

At base camp below, a group of middle managers hoots and hollers as the vehicle tops the hill at this off-road course north of Detroit. “Did you see that?” says Tom Patterson, an advanced product strategist. “That was amazing. To see it in action, in motion, that’s just so sweet.”