2003 Chevy Silverado SS

When we ran a quickie bleat on the Silverado SS regular-cab in the Dec. '02 issue ("Chevy's $23,000 Super Truck"), we got response to gag a rat. It wasn't inquiry, it was an outpouring, a plea for a genuine high-performance, stick-shift, rear-wheel-drive Chevrolet. You stormed dealers. You harassed Chevrolet. You were angry with us. It was all too much, too soon. Now we have the culprit by the ear, and we made him tell.

What's the big deal? It's a strippo regular-cab/short-bed with 6.0L power and a six-speed-the muscletruck you've been clamoring for. What you won't discover here is when it'll become a production item or the MSRP; the truck seen here is still just a concept. Our guess is that the production Silverado SS shortie won't see daylight until at least the fourth quarter of '03, but more than likely it'll materialize sometime in '04, if at all. Thanks to a premature bag opening in the hands of HOT ROD, no one at Chevrolet is talking. For now, you'll just have to slobber like the rest of us and keep your digits crossed. Meanwhile, the AWD, extended-cab version of the truck is at dealers now.

With a slapped hand, we were given a single day to photograph and "test" three vehicles; we were forbidden from acquiring hard performance numbers, so forgive the omission. We briefly sampled an SS TrailBlazer, and there was also an SS Tahoe on the lot, but we opted for max seat time in the vehicle we'd already made famous. Our Silverado SS regular-cab impression is based on a half-hour thrash on public roads. The clock is running, where do you begin? Yow! On the loud pedal, blazing out of the photo site and on to the tarmac like a killer on the run. Two kids in a Golf GTI tuner pull upside at a traffic light, windows down, eyes goggling, jaws working. We look. They got thumbs up, "Cool ride, man, awesome truck!" Light clicks green. We beat feet. Leave them in a blast of exhaust and etched asphalt. Catch Second with a healthy squeal. Two tons on the hoof never felt so good.

The SS pickup is deceptive. Despite its 4,190-pound curb weight, the way it hauls off the mark is a factor of the torque multiplication of the gearing, but it has nothing to do with aerodynamics. They are barn-door-like, yet the horsepower easily overcomes them on the 70-to-100-mph squirt (actually faster, but it was difficult to tell). At high velocity, the tires stayed planted and urge you to reach further. On the other side of the equation, the 12-inch discs are just adequate; we'd like ones at least an inch larger all around. They'd stop harder and look like less like an afterthought behind those mammoth wheels.

Steady-state handling on a smooth surface is pure joy. The tires stick, the body stays relatively flat, and characteristics remain neutral, but when the tarmac heaves and the humps rise and drop, it upsets the suspension, bumping and bobbing the body around like a cork in rough water. We got a harsh lesson about heavy braking when exiting an apex on rough surface. The tires maintain more energy than you're used to and conspire with the unloaded rear of the truck to bring the back around at the wrong time. It is an unsettling but obviously remediable situation with more rebound resistance in the shock absorbers to counter the substantial unsprung weight of those huge 20s.

On most road surfaces, the ride was comfortable, taut, smooth, and acceptable. The huge tires don't intrude and seem to fit the overall package well, especially in terms of the balance they lend to the wheelhouses of the lowered body in relation to windshield rake and roofline (and especially in black).