Chevy Silverado off-road racing program could foreshadow a Ford Raptor rival
The Silverado is going racing and it sure sounds like the place to test a production off-road performance pickup.
Ford's had the off-road performance pickup segment nearly locked down for years now with the F-150 Raptor. We won't see Ram's rival for a couple more years, and as for Chevrolet ? Chevy has been pretty darn quiet about its own prospects.
Perhaps news about the 2020 Chevy Silverado is a sign of things to come, however. Chevy said on Thursday that it will take the full-size pickup racing in the Best in the Desert racing series. The bowtie brand knows a thing or two about the off-road racing series since the Colorado ZR2 has been a tour de force for the past couple of years. The company has consistently used the series as a place to test new performance parts for trucks, too.
That's what the Silverado will be doing as it tackles the off-road courses. Chevy specifically said this Silverado race track will be used for "engineering development and validation." The truck seen here began life as a typical Silverado LT Trail Boss with the optional 6.2-liter V8 engine. Tweaks and changes are relegated to the suspension and underbody. Of course, there are race-specific modifications, too.
Specifically, the Silverado race truck will run with a new long-travel suspension, front and rear jounce shocks and prototype Multimatic DSSV dampers. These dampers made their first appearance in the Colorado ZR2, but Chevy said the prototype set are of a higher capacity. They'll help keep the bigger Silverado in check with greater wheel travel and overall better control.
Rear shock skids and skid plates to cover much of the underbody round out the race-prepped Silverado's upgrades.
If there's one thing motorsport is good for, it's to hone and perfect things for a street vehicle. In a world increasingly void of cool sedans , the least Chevy can do is give us a boss full-size performance truck. We'll catch the Silverado race truck make its debut later this month at the Laughlin Desert Classic.
