(crowd noise)
- Yeah man, I'm a Chevy boy, Bowtie Brigadier,
Bowtie Brigade, First Sergeant, General Staff Sergeant.
You know my truck's got them Realtree camo seats,
them rockstar rims with that star in the middle, uh.
Yes, got a lift six inch.
I can pretty much go (snort) anywhere I want.
Yo, you thirsty?
I got 30 rack and 90 likes in the back.
(spit)
(laughter)
This is everything you need to know to get up to speed
on the Chevy Silverado.
(energetic gaming music)
The history of Chevy's Silverado begins
with Chevy's iconic C and K series full size pickup trucks.
The C/K models span four generations between 1959 and 2000.
So what is the difference
between the C and the K series trucks?
About eight letters.
(laughter)
It was the drivetrains.
The C was rear-wheel drive.
And the K was four-wheel drive.
Chevy C/K trucks were trusty steeds and were well loved
by anyone who made an honest living hauling heavy payloads:
ranchers, farmers, fishermen, race teams,
farm farmers, fish racers, etc...
We'll do a whole episode on the C10 pickup
but this is about the Silverado.
So we're gonna skip ahead a bit.
In the late '70's, Chevy introduced the name Silverado
as a trim level of their third generation C/K truck.
It was a bit classier with chrome trim and a snaz interior,
hashtag #snaz.
Let's make it a thing.
But maintained the offroad ruggedness
that was earning there like the rock reputation.
By the early '90's, them boys 'n girls at GM realized
that the landscape of the American truck market had changed.
Import trucks had created a new small truck market
through the '80's.
And Chevy knew that they had to go one of two ways
with their new truck line.
Smaller and more fuel efficient?
Or bigger and more badass?
So what would they do?
They already had the tiny S10 pickups so-
They went bigger!
Bigger!
(shouting)
(beep)
[Announcer] Hey guys, hang on.
Hurry up.
We'll be - don't worry, it's going
to be fixed any minute now.
(beep)
- Chevy doubled down with the Silverado and decided
that while the other guys were
all chasing their tales making little baby (bleep) trucks,
they would position the Silverado as the workhorse
against which other's workhorses would be measured.
In 1998 through the 1999 model year, a bigger,
badder Chevy truck, the Silverado, finally made it
on to the scene.
Okay, guys- I want to paint a picture for ya.
It's 1998, I'm just realizing I want cars.
I'm living with my dad for the first time in six years.
I find a picture in a car magazine of a Chevy Silverado.
"Dad, I want this truck!"
And he's like, "Sure."
He was a liar.
I couldn't- We couldn't afford that.
Anyways, one of the first cars I ever wanted.
I thought it was cool as shit.
I lived in Kentucky.
Back to the story.
The Silverado was setting a new standard for trucks.
It was bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter.
Bigger, faster, stronger, smarter.
The Silverado 1500 got better gas mileage than the F150,
made more power than the Dodge Ram,
and could tow more than either of them.
(tires burning out)
After proving itself to be America's best truck,
the Silverado earned Motor Trend's Truck of the Year award.
Sure, they gave it to the Mercedes M-Class the year before
and the Aerostar Minivan in 1990,
but that's besides the point.
The top of the food chain, large adult son
of the Chevy truck line-up
during this generation was the 3500HD which stands
for heavy hog- hashtag #heavydog.
Let's make it happen.
And get ready all you diesel nerds,
here's the thing you've been waiting for.
Duramax!
(exhaust spewing)
The 3500 heavy dog was powered by a 6.6 liter
Duramax diesel V8
and cranked out 360 hrsprs and 650 pound feet of turk.
This big boy could tow almost 17,000 pounds,
and haul around 5,000 pounds in the bed.
That's enough to carry my two buffest horses,
Dice and Carlin.
But what if you don't need to haul heavy stuff?
What if the only thing you need to haul is (bleep)?
Enter the Chevy Silverado Super Sport,
a 345 horsepower beast, powered by Chevy's 6 liter LQ9 V8.
It came with a four speed automatic gearbox,
all wheel drive,
and had an aggressive four ten gear ratio for-
basically burnouts.
It was a burnout truck.
(tires burning out)
(tires squealing)
By 2006, it would come with more cool upgrades
like performance suspension, 20-inch wheels,
and even a limited edition Intimidator SS
which I will talk about-
right now.
Dale Earnhardt was one of the winningest
and most badass race car drivers in American history.
The very sight of Dale in the rearview was enough
to make you quiver with fear.
Catching a glimpse of that legendary mustache
intimidated the competition in to submission,
thus the Intimidator.
In 2006, five years after Dale's tragic death,
Chevy honored his memory with the Intimidator SS edition.
This sport truck only came in Onyx Black
and had a whole bunch of sick appearance upgrades
like a rear spoiler on a truck,
headrests emblazoned with an image
of Dale winning against a big E,
and Intimidator badges all over.
Handling was improved.
It had bigger anti-roll bars
with the locking 3.73 diff in the back.
You know what that means, right?
Big old smoking burnouts with both tires spinning!
Do it for Dale!
I really like this guy and everybody should watch NASCAR.
(tires burning out)
As fun as race inspired trucks are,
they're not the reason most people buy trucks.
Most people, who buy trucks, buy trucks
because they're rough and ready work doers.
And that brings us to perhaps
the most iconic Silverado there is, the Z71.
I know you've seen the iconic Z71 badge.
I'm about to tell you cute, little babies what it means.
Originally, Z71 was just an internal code
for an options package.
For ordering purposes, the Z71 package came
with upgraded Bilstein shocks, skid plates,
and an offroad ready locking rear diff.
(tires spinning)
To their complete surprise, the Z71 sold like hotcakes.
And why wouldn't they?
The fact that the most purpose built version
of Chevy's most purpose built truck further proved
that when you wanted a real truck workhorse,
you got a Chevy.
(tires spinning in mud)
Chevy had also been running their like the rock adds
for over a decade.
And by 2004, nine years after Post Malone was born,
I guess they figured they'd made their point.
Chevy's new umbrella slogan for all of their vehicles was-
- [Announcer] Chevy Silverado, an American revolution.
- And they tried to expand their market share.
Chevy offered it as a hybrid in 2004 dubbed-
the Silverado Hybrid.
The Silverado Hybrid was also the first mild hybrid
which used an electric motor just to help
with starting up, charging batteries,
and powering accessories.
So, it wasn't really one.
The second generation Silverado was everything
the first generation was and more.
It de-butted in 2007 and got a more plush,
more upscale interior, with a revised exterior,
with smaller panel gaps, and tighter lines.
It sat atop an entirely new frame
and completely revised suspension.
The new frame improved body stiffness by a massive 92%,
a bigger transformation than Christian Bale going
from The Machinist to The Dark Knight in under a year.
The new 6.2 liter, 403 horsepower Vortec V8
was now available to make the new truck faster
and haul more libs.
The new, sleeker body design offered better fuel economy
which was getting more important
while America entered the Great Recession.
Speaking of fuel economy,
you can finally get a six-speed automatic transmission,
a much welcomed upgrade
over the previous gen's dog of a four-speed.
Welcome to the 21st Century, Silverado!
(peppy country music)
Chevy aimed to make it even better.
2014 saw the introduction of a brand new Silverado
after the second gen's seven year run.
The third generation K2XX Silverado came on the scene
with updated body work, better grill, bigger wheel arches,
and a host of new trims and engines.
What else were you expecting, it's a Chevy?
(tires burning out)
For the third gen Silverado, GM did away
with the Vortec family of V8s
and introduced the Ecotec V6s and V8s.
They made more power, baby!
With this generation, Chevy made a bunch of changes
that increased the strength and dropped the weight
of the new Silverado.
They used aluminum in the hood, engine block,
and massive control arms to save weight.
Ask your grandpappy if he ever thought the hood
of a Chevy truck would be made out of aluminum.
And he'd say, "Who are you?"
"Give me my nurse."
This was also the first time the Silverado had a model
with high luxury, high spec, and high class.
The High Country came with a beautiful leather interior,
all the amenities you could want,
and because it's a Chevy, special badging!
(tires burning out)
The biggest development with the third gen Silverado
was the massive amount of special editions.
Whoo boy, were there special editions.
There was the Texas edition, Alaskan edition,
Rally edition 1, Rally edition 2, Blackout edition,
Midnight edition, Midnight HD edition, Custom Sport edition,
Realtree edition, Redline edition, Special Ops edition,
High Desert edition.
Oh my god, I think that's it.
But wait, you forgot about the Costco Sport HD edition,
the LT, the LTZ, the Z71.
Oh my god, it's gotta be the most- cause might
as well talk about history.
It was all kinds of trucks for all kinds of people.
This year Chevy debuted the fourth generation,
T1XX Silverado.
It has an even more aggressive front end,
more muscular wheel arches, Robocop-inspired headlights,
and a healthy mix of engines.
This one is also the first time Chevy
has put a 2.7 liter turbo under the hood of a Silverado.
This turbo four cylinder engine gets
as much as 22 pounds of boost.
This little puppy cranks outs 310 hrsprs
and 348 pound feet of turks.
Just like before, if you've got a pulse,
they got a Silverado for you.
And don't lament the loss of the Z71 package
because they still got twos of them,
Trail Boss and Custom Trail Boss.
It's got a fricking lift, offroad tires,
and of course a skid plate.
And it doesn't stop there,
the 2020 Silverado will be even bigger.
And for al you coal bros, you pervs,
the old Duramax diesel V8 is gonna give you
910 pound feet of torque
through a new Allison ten speed.
Keep'em coming, Chevy!
(spits)
(crowd noise)
Thank you so much for watching Up to Speed.
If you guys didn't watch it, we wouldn't get to make it.
Some of you guys have reached out to us
and been like, "Hey, I'd like to send you some
like cool or weird stuff."
So we've addressed that, we now have a PO Box.
Send weird and cool stuff to Donut Media,
PO Box 64669, Los Angeles, CA 90064.
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My name is James.
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(growl)