we're here in the high country of
Colorado but we're getting our first
opportunity to drive the Colorado zr2
with me Tim Demetrio chief engineer
chassis engineer what did I just do give
you a promotion I'll take it that's so
I'm not chassis controls performance
engineer for the day are - this has been
my baby worked on it for the past couple
years and it's been a blast to show to
you guys okay so this is our first
opportunity to get a chance to drive it
so talk to me about what's different
about a regular Colorado and the Zr -
okay from the base Colorado or the z71
what we've done is we've looked at the
truck two inches they've increased the
track width three and a half inches
we've added some protection with you see
with the rock rails the skid plates and
our took up the sleeve it's a multimatic
tssb spool valve dampers okay you said a
mouthful there that's obviously a big
deal the suspension on this is obviously
key if you're trying to make an off-road
vehicle you guys used to make a zr2 now
you're bringing it back on this platform
what is it about those shock absorbers
that that improve the off-road
capabilities so yeah so the multimatic
spin and the SSB damper gives us this
tuning bandwidth that's unheard of for a
production vehicle typically when you do
an off-road focus truck you're
immediately trading off the on-road
performance of the vehicle the spool
valves we no longer have to make that
trade-off as you've seen with the truck
you can drive it down the road it's nice
and comfortable feels like everything
you'd expect from a vehicle to drive
on-road then you come out here and rock
crawl with it bomb through the desert
with it and it provides the compliance
you need and suffer off roads this way
but it's all automatic or am i switching
things on the inside of the test all
mechanical all based on the damper
design it's a completely different way
to do a damper than what's typically
done and it's inherent to just a
mechanical fluid flow the way it goes
through those full valves is completely
different than deflecting washers and it
gives you this tuning ability and a
broad range student capability that's
not there with the buy best shock so
it's technology that's not on any other
vehicle any is there a competitive
segment for this
what do you what do you think this is
the first time I put an application for
the DSS be dampers in an off-road use TM
pioneered it for a high production
vehicle with the z/28 f1 technology we
saw what was possible with the tuning
capabilities of it said this is exactly
what we need for an off-road truck so
we're the first tried off-road and it's
been everything we've asked for it more
so we're really proud to showcase it on
the truck
so obviously the Raptor very important
with off-road capability and software
paddle shifters pen speed transmission
but the core of this vehicle seems to be
in the transfer case nine different
settings in the transfer case is that
right so it's a combination between
transfer case settings and locking axles
we have the front rear knee lockers when
you cop combine that with the four modes
of the transfer case come up to nine
it's really we wanted to optimize the
truck for any condition you can throw at
it off-road we want to give you the
ability to climb rocks go bomb through
the desert you're driving up to
Grandma's house on the mountain through
the snow everything we can do every
possibility so it's got an all-wheel
drive capability two-wheel drive I can
lock the rear Locker correct four wheel
drive high I can rock block the rear
Locker correct and then when I'm in low
range I get access to lockers whenever I
want
correct okay so so what do you what are
your thoughts about what this vehicle is
going to do in the competitive set
mid-size segment doing some interesting
things why did you guys need this
offering vehicle well first of all it's
our first true venture into the off-road
market in a long time for GM and we
wanted to come on with the back you want
to make sure that we did everything we
could to make sure we have an off-road
capable vehicle it's going to WoW
everybody with a midsize platform it's
really great because when you're
off-roading on a steep trails you need a
smaller package there's just places you
can't fit a full-size truck
so a midsize truck the platform was a
great starting point everything from the
chassis was engineered with a thought of
off-road in mind if you look under the
frame all across numbers the spring eyes
everything's tucked up nice and flush so
we had a great starting point to evolve
this truck is there anything that you
didn't get this time around is there
anything that we should think about
expecting down the road I think we're
going to see how the market likes this
truck right now we've thrown at it we're
happy with it it's exceeded all of our
expectations and we'll see what the
feedback is September's so TRD pro the
Toyota is obviously out there they're
claiming that they are on the king of
the hill this is going to be the direct
competitor about that how do you think
that's going to go they can be king of
their Hill we're going to go up a
different Hill and look down on that
very cool Tim thank you for your time
it's very my vehicle we've had a lot of
fun driving this and we hope to get many
more hours behind the wheel sounds great
right now if you want more information
about this pickup truck or any other
trucks sold in the US go to pickup
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you