All-Female Bronco Build Prepares to Storm SEMA 2022!!!

By Michael S. Palmer - October 13, 2022

By the time the All-Female Bronco Build debuts, over 250 volunteers will have helped transform a stock Ford Bronco Wildtrack into a BEAST.

Walking into the dual-bay garage, a showroom-fresh Bronco Wiltrack sits perched atop a lift next to a sea of parts. Given that it’s a Bronco, missing fenders and an absent roof aren’t unusual. But these Built Wild (<–trademarked) SUVs usually have seats and wheels and hoods. The thing’s in pieces. But, thankfully, freshly painted body panels, new bumpers, and massive tires are waiting to go back on along with the seats, which have been redone in Katzkin leather. Teardown is nearly complete and it’s time to rebuild anew.

Welcome to the first phase of the All-Female Bronco Build for SEMA Show 2022.

The project will debut November 1 at 12:30 pm in the West Hall, Booth #57061. But today, a few months before the tradeshow begins, impact wrenches are still firing on and off, echoing across the SEMA Garage as a team of women collaborates. They’re currently replacing the OEM exhaust with a full cat-back system supplied by AWE, who also flew in the company’s in-house Performance Specialist, Sara Riordan, to help. At the same time, other women are focusing on the revised ICON suspension components and wheels, and 37″ Milestar Patagonia Tires.

Once this rig is reassembled and properly modified, it’ll be off to SEMA Garage Detroit for a custom wrap, a host of cool accessories, and a Ford Performance tune before it returns to Sin City.

Powered By The SEMA Businesswomen’s Network (SBN)

Observing the group’s interactions while building, this isn’t a shop of coworkers. These people don’t usually work together. Instead, the atmosphere is part All-Star team, part apprenticeship. And at its core is a multigenerational group of volunteers made up of grandmothers and mothers and daughters and granddaughters.

Together, today’s grouping represents a small portion of the SEMA Businesswomen’s Network (SBN).

SEMA, of course, is a trade association made up of a, “diverse group of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, publishing companies, auto restorers, street-rod builders, restylers, car clubs, race teams and more.” And within the SEMA membership, individual councils form networks and groups focusing on various specialized fields, like the SBN. They’re not employees or union members, but rather colleagues and volunteers with shared industry passions.

Sherry Kollien, Program Manager for the All-Female Bronco Build, explains, “the goal of the SBN group is to network and uplift the women in the industry and connect and work together and do projects.” By the time the November 1 debut takes place, over 250 female volunteers will have worked on installation, partnerships, organizing, marketing, and supplying parts for the build. Some are industry pros with award-winning multimillion-dollar businesses. While others are still students hoping to be the next generation of master technicians.

Like I said, part All-Stars, part apprenticeship. The sense of fellowship is inspiring.

10 Years in the Making

SEMA builds have a variety of origins. Shops customizing cars for customers. Parts companies showcasing new technologies. SBN member Sherry Kollien spent 30 years at the Ford Motor Company where she ultimately managed Ford’s SEMA project vehicle program. Essentially, shops and builders pitch OEMs like Ford and Chevy in hopes of acquiring a vehicle to build for the SEMA show that can then be used as marketing for everyone involved.

Ten years ago, the SBN pitched Kollien about building a Mustang GT for SEMA 2012. Once approved, the SBN partnered with companies like Edlebrock for some go-fast goodies. And along the way, established female builders and hot-rodders mentor the next generation of aspiring women gearheads.

Take Dr. Karen Salvaggio as an example. Salvaggio was an Air Force mechanic turned school teacher who used her day jobs to fund weekend endurance racing ambitions with Shelby Cobra and Daytona kit cars… All while raising a family. Today, she’s retired from teaching, but still racing and a public speaker. She brought her daughter, Tracy Marshall, and granddaughter, Kendall, to donate their time and help the Bronco evolve.

Generations of hot-rodding and performance passion are everywhere. Sara Morosan is SEMA Show royalty. She co-owns LGE-CTS Motorsports with her sister Theresa Contreras, a shop started by their parents in 1982 after their father was laid off from Ford. Contreras leads the paint team, while Morosan is more on the “accessory and parts side and the management side.” In a world where most shops struggle to complete a single build for SEMA, LGE-CTS has built an average of 21 cars annually since 1998, with many of those being Ford products.

(Also, that’s Morosan’s grandmother in the center of the top picture and she’s exactly the kind of spitfire one imagines paving the way for generations of future hot-rodders.)

Morosan isn’t wrenching today, but rather coordinating and organizing (and giving interviews). She also appears to be the nexus through which several partnerships are made. “We wanted to go with women-owned companies or women in leadership or women that are, you know, partners in the company.”

There’s a full parts list below that you should check out, but when I asked Morosan — who routinely builds Broncos and Ford trucks — how they were improving the already terrific Sasquatch Package suspension, she spoke at length about the ICON vehicle dynamics 3-4″ Lift Stage 8 System Billet Suspension.

It combines billet control arms with extended-range coilovers that are electronically adjustable and controlled almost like the MagneRide systems you’ll find in a modern Raptor or high-performance Mustang. This results in extended travel that, when combine with taller tires, gives the Bronco “more grip and more flexibility and just help you get through those trails way easier than trying to do it in a stock.”

How To See the All-Female Bronco Build!

If you’d like to see the SBN All-Female Bronco Build in person, grab some tickets to SEMA 2022 by clicking right HERE. The show runs November 1 through November 4. If you can’t make it to Vegas, the SBN hopes to tour the Bronco around the United States, showing it at a variety of popular offroading events over the next year. Once that tour wraps, they’ll send the build to auction and use the proceeds to fund future projects and programs aimed at benefiting women in the aftermarket auto industry.

Parts & Sponsors

Courtesy of SBN, here’s a list of all the parts currently planned for use (list subject to change)…

Base Vehicle

2021 Ford Bronco 4D-Door Wildtrack
2.7L V6 EcoBoost engine
10 Speed automatic transmission

Powertrain

Ford Performance EcoBoost power pack performance calibration
TurboSmart Kompact EM Plumb Back Valve VR19
aFe Power Momentum GT Cold Air Intake w/Pro 5R Filter
AWE Tuning 2.7L Cat Back Exhaust Suite

Chassis

ICON vehicle dynamics 3-4″ Lift Stage 8 System Billet Suspension
Bronco Buster Ultimate Steering Upgrade Package

Wheels & Tires

ICON Alloys Thrust 17” x 8.50” Satin Black Wheels
Milestar Patagonia 37 x 13.50R17 MT02 Tires
McGuard Black Lug nuts with custom engraved SBN logo

Exterior

Terra Strada Design custom wrap and installation
Advanced Fiberglass 2” flare, 1” rise fenders, quarters and ram air hood* Baja Forged full size “Crawler” front and rear bumpers with full size skid plate
Warn VR EVO 10-S winch
Factor 55 ultra hook
Cascadia 4×4 Hood Solar Panel
Ford Performance
Air Compressor by ARB
TRED Pro Recovery Boards by ARB
Jack with mount by ARB
37” Spare tire mount
Ford Accessories LockNLoad roof rack system by Yakima
Ford Accessories SkyLine tent by Yakima
Ford Research and Advanced Engineering Lit Pony
Dee Zee trail site delete kit
Oracle Lighting, Brackets and Switches- need details
sPOD Switch Panel