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Shock absorbers designed for Formula 1 race cars take found a home in the 2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 pickup truck. They help brand the ZR2 capable of flying over sand dunes at speed (chief photo), climbing over rocks at a crawl, and driving around town without a boisterous ride.

The ZR2 starts in the low forties and adds near $half-dozen,000 over the next costliest Colorado, the Z71. For pickup fans who go off-route — seriously off-route — the ZR2 lets you lot buy one all-round pickup, rather than spring for, say, a docile SUV plus a second 4×4 with skid plates and a jouncy break.

What the Colorado ZR2 does that's special

Chevrolet helped revive the midsize-pickup market place when the 2d-generation Colorado arrived equally a 2015 model. The 2016 was the first contemporary midsize pickup with a diesel engine. Now in 2017 comes the ZR2 for off-roading that has been raised 2 inches, gets 31-inch high Goodyear DuraTrac tires (1 inch more than than the previous top-stop Colorado Z71), adds ii massive skid plates in front, and adopts special stupor absorbers from Multimatic (more below), a supplier to Formula ane too as other race series. An electronically controlled locking differential lets the commuter lock together the rear wheels or, with the power transfer case in the low range, lock the front end wheels as well.

Despite all this, the ZR2 Colorado is pleasant to drive on the highway. Actually. Occupants can talk without shouting. The Colorado is ane vehicle that does it all: civilized highway driving, off-road driving at speed, and competence itch along rocky trails.

Off-road, hands on

I test drove the new Colorado ZR2 in (of course) Colorado. A resort programmer in Gateway, near the Utah edge, build a nearby high-speed clay track with a half-dozen jump ramps and sweeping U-turns. To get maximum airtime, information technology helps to exceed the posted speeds (xxx to 45 mph depending on jump size) past about five mph, otherwise the nose never lifts much. What'southward amazing is how much of the force of landing is captivated by the shocks rather than your spine.

For off-roading, we collection to Bangs Canyon, a permanent off-road grade near Grand Junction, climbing and descending rock-strewn roads, threading narrow passages while trying to avert pinstriping (pigment scrapes from large branches or protruding rocks). The adjustable speed limiter was a large help going down hills, where the difference between 1.5 and 2.5 mph is significant.

One stretch of the course tests an off-route vehicle'south ability to climb over rocks and ledges nigh a foot loftier. This is where yous press buttons on the dash to engage the rear and and then front locking differentials. The two front and two rear wheels move at the same speed, and the vehicle slowly but surely climbs each step of the course. This is all across what near people will need going up the steepest colina to a ski land condo. Still, information technology's a lot of fun. It could come up in handy pulling a gunkhole onto the trailer on a launch ramp covered in algae.

Also notable was that the hour-long drive to and from the Bureau of Land Management off-road course was in a vehicle that was at ease at highway speed, quiet, with no harsh ride and simply a little tire noise.

How the shocks piece of work

The daze absorbers are from Multimatic, a Markham (Toronto area) individual company. Multimatic uses dynamic suspensions spool valve (DSSV) technology. A traditional shock absorber — or daze damper — is an oil-filled tube; inside is a piston with holes for oil passage, covered by flexible discs (or shims). When the vehicle hits a bump, the piston compresses as oil passes through the holes, so uncompresses (helped by the vehicle'due south springs) afterwards. But the shims wear over time, they lose flexibility, and metallic particles collect inside the shock. They throw off a lot of heat when stressed. Most shocks are engineered to have a single ride setting (condolement, sport, or extreme off-route with long suspension travel).

Multimatic DSSV shocks for ZR2.

Enter Multimatic: The shims (discs) are replaced by spools, or sleeves, nestling inside each other and held autonomously by a spring. When there's enough pressure, one sleeve moves slightly relative to the other, exposing apertures that allow oil to flow to the other side of the piston.

In the instance of the ZR2 shocks, they're actually more sophisticated than the ones that took Reddish Balderdash Racing to 4 directly Formula 1 titles 2010-2013, Chevy having three separate chambers. In that location are separate (smaller) chambers for on-road compression and for rebound; the largest sleeping accommodation is for off-route large bumps, with a second valve (non-DSSV) on the front end shocks for when the ZR2 returns to earth from a big launch. Effectively, Multimatic has given an analog device nearly-digital precision. Subsequently bouncing over several miles of rocky off-road paths, the shocks were barely warmer than the rest of the vehicle.

Multimatic DSSV shocks are simply on a handful of vehicles, including the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, Camaro Z/28 and ZL1 1LE, Mercedes-AMG GT, and Aston Martin One-77.

(Note to hot rodders: The just Multimatic shocks bachelor in the open market are replacements for cars with them as original equipment. They're tuned to be vehicle-specific.)

Where the Chevrolet Colorado fits in

Since 2010, pickups, SUVs, and crossover SUVs represent the majority of passenger vehicle sales in the U.s.a., not sedans and wagons. Now information technology's up to sixty pct and Colorado is part of that bulk. Why? Gas prices aren't an effect (currently). Shorter drivers similar sitting up higher in traffic. They like all-wheel-bulldoze or four-wheel-drive that is common on pickups and SUVs for its extra traction (true) and better braking (not true, merely many believe it) in snow.

Most pickups are full-size and tin can exist equally much equally 250 inches long (about 21 feet) where midsize pickups are typically 200-225 inches long and, every bit important, a half-foot narrower. For a car or SUV, anything over 200 inches would be considered full-size. Through April, the first 3rd of the year, midsize pickups accounted for 137,000 units, while full-size pickups (Ford F-Series, Chevy Silverado and the similar) sold 723,000 units.

Amongst midsize pickups, the sales rankings are Toyota Tacoma (threescore,000 sales through April), Colorado (32,000), Nissan Frontier (22,000), Honda Ridgeline (13,000), and Colorado's corporate twin GMC Canyon (ten,000). The involvement in the midsize market (and the fact that information technology sold 350,000 units 20 years ago) led Ford to announce the render of the Ford Ranger midsize pickup as a 2019 model.

Ford F-150 Raptor

Among off-road vehicles, the full-size Ford Raptor, a variant of the Ford F-150, has been generating considerable positive publicity. It's a serious off-roader. But it's besides big: non a problem in desert runs, an event crawling through rocky colina passes. Colorado ZR2's closest competitor is the Tacoma TRD, and one of the most capable because of its smaller size is the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Competition for all midsize pickups comes from the new, second-generation Honda Ridgeline that has won several test reviews as an all-purpose pickup simply not as an off-roader.

Should you purchase?

The 2017 Chevrolet Colorado starts at $21,000 (rear drive, 200-hp iv-cylinder gasoline engine) to $47,000 for a loaded Colorado ZR2 with a 181-hp iv-cylinder diesel with 369 pound-feet of torque (a lot). Almost Colorados sell in the mid- to loftier-thirties with the V6 gasoline engine (308 hp, 275 pound-feet of torque) and an 8-speed automatic. For a pickup, fuel economy is reasonable: xvi mpg metropolis, eighteen highway, 17 combined for gas; 19/22/20 for the diesel fuel and a driving range of near 450 miles from the 21-gallon tank.

The acme-line ZR2 comes in either a coiffure cab configuration with a short cargo box (62 inches) or a snugger extended cab with a long cargo box (74 inches). Both are 212 inches long. Other Colorado trim lines let for the coiffure cab and long cargo box, full vehicle length 225 inches. The ZR2 cargo box is 44 inches wide, meaning it won't fit 4×eight plywood lying apartment, never mind that the wood would stick out the back by a couple anxiety. For that, you need a full-size pickup.

Given that the ZR2 is the summit of the line, it's well equipped: OnStar with on-board Wi-Fi, iv USB jacks, leather seats, a wireless telephone charger, and a rear camera. Navigation is $495, seven-speaker Bose audio is $500.

Unfortunately, there'south no surround-camera option; a front camera would be helpful when y'all're working a trail without a picket, or trying to pull out of a steep gunkhole launching ramp with some other vehicle adjacent to you (and people on shore watching, and judging). Towing capacity for the ZR2 was reduced from 7,000 to 5,000 pounds, which is all the same significant, and the maximum payload drops from 1,500 to i,000 pounds. GM says it'south because of the revised suspension, raised ride acme, and a wider rail (distance between left and right wheels).

Chevrolet says the ZR2 version of the Colorado represents a "class of one," meaning the Raptor is bigger and wider, the Jeep Rubicon is smaller, and the midsize Tacoma TRD doesn't take quite the aforementioned specs, in Chevy's stance. If you intend to practise serious off-roading — rock-crawling or higher-speed desert cruising — in a vehicle that's perfectly comfortable on paved roads, the Colorado ZR2 and its unique DSSV suspension may be the one to focus on.