Bronco Beats Wrangler in Drag Race – But Only Just

• Our weathered long-term Wrangler gets a surprise launch.
• Once the Bronco's turbochargers kick in, it takes the lead.
• Bit of fun in the dirt shows off-road SUVs can boogie too.

Sizing them up

First, our long-term Jeep Wrangler. We purchased this one, a 2018 Rubicon model, more than four years ago. And in that time it's racked up over 80,000 miles — many of them demanding, difficult miles of off-road driving. So while it packs a decent 3.6-liter V6 engine under the hood, making 285 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque, we had suspicions that its challenging life may have sapped some performance. However, it has one big advantage: weight. In our testing the Wrangler tipped the scales at 4,545 pounds, nearly 700 pounds lighter than the Bronco.

Right, so about our long-term Ford Bronco. We've had this one only a few short months, having finally taken delivery after several long delays. But our first impressions are that the Bronco is worth the wait. It's superbly capable off-road, and its optional twin-turbo 2.7-liter V6 engine has plenty of muscle. Rated at 330 horsepower and 415 lb-ft of torque, it dominates the Wrangler on paper. The weight discrepancy, however, means that these rigs have about the same power-to-weight ratio, needing to move roughly 16 pounds of SUV with every horsepower. Indeed, our separate track testing of both vehicles revealed similar times in the quarter mile (15.6 seconds for the Bronco versus 15.8 seconds for the Wrangler), with the Wrangler actually moving a hair faster at that point (85.9 mph to the Bronco's 85 mph flat).

In short, while you might think the Bronco V6 would wipe the floor with the Wrangler, our test numbers indicated a toss-up. But races aren't run on paper. They're run on computer screens.

How it went down

In the first race, guess who had the advantage? The wily old veteran. That's right — the lighter Wrangler leapt out to an edge. It shot off the line by several car lengths while the Bronco waited to build power. Pretty soon, however, the turbocharged Bronco got to work. It reached 60 mph in 7.6 seconds, dusting the Wrangler's 8.7 seconds. And that was the beginning of the end. The Bronco kept pulling, finishing the quarter mile in 15.7 seconds at 84.8 mph, while the Wrangler closed the time gap slightly but could only manage 16.4 seconds at 81.6 mph.

In the second race, both SUVs got off the line with good starts. The Wrangler again held an advantage, but this time it was slight. Still, it took time for the Bronco to find its legs. It needed 8.0 seconds to reach 60 mph, though the Wrangler barely improved on the first run with an 8.6-second sprint. Interestingly, the Wrangler again narrowed the margin at the quarter mile, this time to just two-tenths of a second. In a pretty close finish, the Bronco clocked a 16.1-second quarter mile to the Jeep's 16.3 seconds.

The first two races showed how the Wrangler used its weight advantage to stay within shouting distance, although it ended up losing by more than our track numbers had suggested. Would the results be closer with a brand-new Wrangler V6? Quite possibly. It's also possible that the high temperatures in the desert taxed the Ford's turbos on the second run, which would explain why its numbers fell off considerably. In any case, the Bronco seemed to be at full strength for our third attempt, a rolling race beginning from 30 mph that the Ford won handily by nearly a full second.

Edmunds says

These two SUVs are more closely matched than they may first appear, and that played out in our drag race. The Wrangler impressed with its peppy starts, but hard mileage may have ultimately held it back from challenging for the win. Meanwhile, the Bronco has power to spare — enough, in fact, to overcome nearly 700 pounds of extra weight. We're just happy that two off-roaders pulled off an exciting drag race. Now, to find a mountain to climb ...