The Perfect Chevrolet Truck: a Chevrolet Forum Thought Experience
Chevrolet Forum has an idea for the perfect Chevy truck: a Colorado-based Raptor-killer.
Over 100 years ago, Chevrolet took its Series 490 car, removed the rear passenger section, dropped in a simple bed, and sent it off to battle Ford’s Model TT as the Series 490 Light Delivery chassis cab truck. From that point forward, Chevrolet and Ford fought each other on the showroom floor with one truck after another, leading into today’s Silverado vs. F-Series smackdown.
With all of this history in mind, we wondered what else it would take to build the all-time perfect Chevy truck. Hypothetically speaking, if we had an unlimited budget and the option to build a Chevrolet truck that meets every performance and design spec to outshine and outrun every other brand on the planet, what would it look like?
We decided to dial up illustrator Pouria Savadkouei and lay out some ideas. Here’s what we rolled out…
First off, the perfect Chevy truck would be based on the current Chevrolet Colorado (pictured below), with one major change. Instead of a crew cab or an extended cab, it would be a regular cab with only two bucket seats inside; we want the rear window right next to the back of our head.
Speaking of the back, the bed would only be 72 inches in length, instead of 74 inches, while the cab and hood proportions would be rebalanced to make everything look just right. The bed and front fenders would take a page from trophy truck racing, as this Colorado-based midsizer would be a widebody.
Up front, the revamped Colorado would have the all-new Blazer RS’s face, again, rebalanced to look perfect on a truck body. The hood would borrow the power bulge from the Corvette ZR1 to feed air directly to the big surprise underneath.
We do want to save some money at the pump, so this high-performance midsize truck is also a hybrid…putting out enough horsepower and torque to help the truck run down Demons, Hellcats, and Raptors.
That’s right: This Colorado-based pickup truck is powered by none other than the 655-horsepower, 655 lb-ft of torque, supercharged LT4 V8 found under the hood of the Corvette Z06 and Camaro ZL1, linked to the 10-speed automatic used in both cars, as well as the Camaro SS, and a certain pair of Fords we’d like to forget about here.
There is more than just the LT4, though. We do want to save some money at the pump, so this high-performance midsize truck is also a hybrid. Specifically, each front wheel has an electric motor putting out enough additional horsepower and torque to help the truck run down Demons, Hellcats, and Raptors. And no need to worry about whether this would be two- or four-wheel drive, for this truck is permanently all-wheel drive.
Let’s now have a look at inside the cab. Of course, the seats are Recaros, but there is something that’s been lacking for quite a long time: color. We don’t mean contrasting stitching against black-ish leather, either. We mean a really colorful interior, like it used to be back in the day before every manufacturer decided most if not all of the interiors had to be dark places.
For this example, wechose a pair of Frost White Recaros with blue plaid diamond-quilt cloth inserts, with electric blue piping on the bolsters, similar to the black-and-red cloth buckets from the GMC Syclone of the Nineties. The seatbelts are also electric blue.
Elsewhere, the carpet would be electric blue, as would the headliner and the outer portion of the inner door. The center section would be white, and the console would be white leather with electric blue stitching. And of course, if it can’t be covered in leather or cloth, it can be chromed.
Moving onto the dashboard, the truck would have a HUD, period. We loved the HUD we had in the Camaro SS we test-drove a few months ago, so we want it in this high-performance monster. The dash itself would be white leather with blue stitching, and a matching electric blue light show, which would carry-over into the door panels, console, and door sills.
The console touchscreen would be nine inches in size, and would have the standard MyChevrolet system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. As for the instrument cluster, we’re going to pull from the Syclone again, but update it for today as a TFT/analog mix, with electric blue needles.
And if you need a cozy place for your smartphone, there’s a cubby hole under the center controls with USB and USB-C slots, with enough depth to contain your phone and cable entirely, cooling to keep your phone from burning up while using it with the MyChevrolet system, and a ventilated door to keep everything looking tidy.
For the exterior, we decided to go back again to another GMC, this time to the Indy Haulers of the late Seventies. The body itself is metallic Frost White (from the S10 Baja), whose sides are draped with the red-white-blue graphics (also done in metallic) from the 1975 truck.
Moving onto the dashboard, this Colorado-based truck would have a HUD, period. I loved the HUD I had in the Camaro SS we test-drove a few months ago, so we want it in this high-performance monster.
The center stripe takes influence from the 1977 Indy Hauler, which was mostly black except for the middle, which gradually transitioned from black to white via grayscale striping. This time, though, the passenger side of the stripe goes from red to white, then from white to blue on the driver’s side. The whole thing runs from the end of the hood to the top of the rear window.
Moving out back to the 72-inch bed, the whole inside is spray-in, and is blue. There’s the roll bar from the Colorado Xtreme Concept, which would be in white. There would be a full-size spare mounted near the cab, and it would all be hidden under a retractable tonneau cover in white with the red-white-blue center stripe from before.
NATURAL BEAUTY: Our fantasy Chevrolet truck without the add-on modifications.
The tailgate would also take from the Colorado Xtreme Concept, but with a blue center section trimmed in white with white “CHEVROLET” lettering from the 454 SS. The bumper is body color, too.
Finally, we come to the wheels, tires, and suspension. Our Colorado-esque beast can chase down Raptors no matter where they go, so, in memory of the S10 Baja, a modern take on the salt-shaker wheels with beadlocks will do, all shiny and chrome. The 17-inch wheels are wrapped in 17-inch all-terrain rubber from BF Goodrich, riding on the same off-road suspension found on the Colorado Z71. And as far as corners go, GMC’s old Quadrasteer four-wheel steering is in play, modified for high-performance.
All that’s left is a name. Our Chevy supertruck would be dubbed the Tempest. Pontiac is dead, GMC already gave us the Syclone and Typhoon, and the Xtreme name just doesn’t work for us, so why not bring back a similar name to GMC’s small performance trucks without taking them?
Would it be cool if Chevrolet built anything like this? We would think so, but it’s always fun to dream. What would your perfect Chevrolet truck be?
Fantasy Chevy Truck illustrations for Chevrolet Forum by Pouria Savadkouei
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