It was 107 degrees, and not only had the Bronco’s air conditioning packed up, but in a desperate attempt to get the engine temperature gauge out of the red, I had the heater on full blast. Incredibly, it worked, and while I came close to passing out from heatstroke, I managed to coax the seven-year-old Ford through Death Valley… That was exactly 30 years ago, on my first ever tin-hunting road trip in the US. With this in mind, it seems only right that three decades on I should do it in a Bronco again. The only difference is, instead of borrowing a friend’s clapped-out example with 350,000 miles on the clock, this time I’m doing it in a brand-new one – and turning quite a few heads in the process.
Searching for abandoned cars is getting harder all the time, with the high price of scrap metal causing the premature demise of many a classic. It’s the same story with salvage yards, which are closing all the time. Whereas 30 years ago I’d just get
