In the automotive space, there’s no competition more fierce than the one between the Big Three and their full-size pickup trucks. Sure, muscle cars may draw in stares, but big pickup trucks are where the money is at; Americans buy them in greater numbers than any other type of car, after all, and once they buy them, they tend to stick with their brand for years.
As a result, if one of the Big Three manages to establish dominance in a particular pickup truck niche, you can be sure the other two competitors won’t let things stay that way for long. With Ford having established the badass Baja-blasting off-road pickup market with the F-150 Raptor roughly a decade ago and Ram recently one-upping the Blue Oval with the Hellcat-powered 1500 TRX, it was only a matter of time before Chevrolet tosses their hat into the same ring…and apparently, that time is this fall.
Chevrolet announced the new Silverado ZR2 Wednesday morning on Twitter, releasing a short video that shows a camouflaged pickup truck with plenty of wheel travel gallivanting through the mud, before a stream of water washes that away to reveal the ZR2 badge.
The ZR2 badge is no stranger to the Chevy trucks lineup; it’s been the off-road flagship of the midsize Colorado for years now, even spawning a ZR2 Bison variant that’s practically tailor-made for overlanding. The Colorado ZR2 packs advanced Multimatic dampers that deliver an excellent ride over all surfaces, a raised suspension and wider track, standard off-road tires and front and rear locking differentials; we’d guess that most, if not all, of those features will be found on the Silverado ZR2, as well.
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One big question that remains, however, is what will lie under the hood of the Silverado ZR2. The naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 used in high-end Silverados seems like the most obvious fit; it’s no slouch, and its performance bona fides have been demonstrated many times over by its use in the Camaro and Corvette. Still, with the Ram TRX cranking out more than 700 horses and the upcoming F-150 Raptor R likely to do the same, the pressure could be on Chevy to cram some extra power under the Silverado ZR2’s hood. General Motors is already reportedly planning a Cadillac Escalade V with the supercharged V8 used in the old CTS-V; if it fits in the Silverado’s SUV sibling, it probably would work just fine in the pickup, too…