Get to know El Bandito: The Unstoppable RTR Truck
El Bandito, a modified 2021 Ford Bronco designed for extreme antics. All photos courtesy RTR Vehicles.
There are racing trucks, and then there is El Bandito — a modified two-door Bronco with 1,100 horsepower and a Whipple blower. It doesn’t get much more extreme.
RTR Vehicles built El Bandito in 2021 as a showpiece for their off-road capability. It represented how far the brand had come since modifying Mustangs, before moving on to trucks and SUVs like the Ranger and Bronco.
But in the new book Ready To Rock, published by Carrara Media, author Vaughn Gittin Jr. writes that there was an unlikely source of inspiration that took El Bandito to the next level.
“Same Spirit as the Hoonicorn”
To make El Bandito, the RTR team relied on learnings from off-road trucks and SUVs. They also relied on the success of a completely different project: the RTR Hoonicorn, a twin-turbo, all-wheel drive ‘67 Mustang built for Ken Block.
The Hoonicorn was built to conquer the unexpected. Block turned it into an icon with Gymkhana videos that tackled Los Angeles River channels, San Francisco docks and Pikes Peak cliffs. That became the blueprint for El Bandito, too.
“It had to drift,” Gittin Jr. writes. “It had to jump. It had to be able to throw huge roosts, slide through corners, slide on pavement, survive a real off‑road environment. It had to do all the things.”
“It had to drift. It had to jump. It had to all the things.”
Loren Healy and El Bandito: A Perfect Match
Ready to Rock explains how RTR saved El Bandito from being crushed. And the truck has repaid that kindness many times over.
Loren Healy, veteran desert racer and co-founder of the RTR Vehicles Off-Road Team, is credited as the father of El Bandito. And like Ken Block in the Hoonicorn, he’s pushed El Bandito in ways you wouldn’t expect.
Earlier this year, Healy drove El Bandito to victory at the FAT Ice Race in Montana. And last weekend, he won his class at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. It’s conquered deserts, tundras and mountains. What’s next… rainforests?
El Bandito catches air in the sand dunes.
Learn more about El Bandito and other RTR Vehicles creations in Ready To Rock, the new book by Vaughn Gittin Jr. with Mike Spinelli, releasing this November.
Ready To Rock
Dreams, Passion and “Cool Sh*t Wins” — The Story of RTR Vehicles
By Vaughn Gittin Jr. with Mike Spinelli
Foreword by T-Pain
Hope you like going sideways.
Since he began competing professionally in 2004, Vaughn Gittin Jr. has dominated the most entertaining forms of motorsport in the world — from smoky drifting to high speed off-road racing. Now, as founder and owner of RTR Vehicles, he's embarking on a new mission: inject that trademark attitude and personality into the iconic Ford Mustang and Ford Bronco straight from the factory.
This is the story of how Gittin Jr. and his team of fellow underdogs rewrote the rules and rose to automotive prominence, winning two Formula Drift championships and establishing themselves as car culture trend-setters. With the help of veteran journalist Mike Spinelli, they detail the journey from after-hours drifting in New Jersey industrial parks to competing — and winning — on the world's biggest stages.
More than an automotive biography, Gittin Jr. also details the critical steps it took to build RTR Vehicles into a pioneering performance center, set to release the Mustang RTR and Bronco RTR in a landmark partnership with Ford that has earned Gittin Jr. the moniker of "A modern day Carroll Shelby." For millions of dedicated fans, it represents a dream come true. For Gittin Jr. and the RTR team, it's another chance to shock the world.
Also available as Limited Edition here.
ISBN: 978-1-971271-02-6
For information on our Return and Refund Policy, click here.
Ready To Rock
Dreams, Passion and “Cool Sh*t Wins” — The Story of RTR Vehicles
By Vaughn Gittin Jr. with Mike Spinelli
Foreword by T-Pain
Coming in Summer 2026, Ready To Rock | Limited Edition is an exclusive version of the biography of Vaughn Gittin Jr. and RTR Vehicles, icons of modern car culture. Production is restricted to 1,000 copies. Only available from CarraraBooks.com.
Compared with the Standard Edition, every copy of the Limited Edition:
is signed by Vaughn Gittin Jr.;
comes in a unique black hardcover;
is limited to 1,000 copies only.
Over more than 200 pages, Gittin Jr. details the rise of RTR Vehicles and the passion and dedication it took to build an automotive powerhouse. Featuring behind-the-scenes stories and never-before-seen images from acclaimed automotive photographers, this coffee table book is the perfect keepsake for any modern auto enthusiast.
Customers will receive communication about preorder delivery closer to the release date later this summer.
ISBN: 978-1-971271-02-6
For information on our Return and Refund Policy, click here.