Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Completes America’s Longest Off-Road Race
This year’s “Vegas to Reno” off-road race saw the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 competing in its stock form and finishing the grueling course without any major incident.
It was the official debut of the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 in the longest off-road race in America – the “Vegas to Reno” race presented by FOX. And guess what? The truck which competed in near-stock condition finished the race. The joint efforts of Chevrolet Performance and Hall Racing yielded its reward as the Chevy truck successfully crossed the finish line without breaking down.
Piloted by Chad Hall and Frank DeAngelo of Hall Racing, the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, reached the finishing point at Carson City, Nevada in 18 hours, 50 minutes and 16 seconds. As per the unofficial results announced by Best in the Desert organization, the truck finished the 539-mile course at the 136th overall position and clocked an average speed of 28.6 mph.
The course which is harsh and unforgiving, took the life of a solo motorcycle competitor and put a quad driver in hospital this year. So, one can imagine how nasty things can get on this off-road race, which hurls a variety of terrain at the drivers and their machines. Only 204 of the 336 vehicles that were flagged off, managed to reach the finishing point.
Courtesy: Chevrolet Pressroom
Courtesy: Chevrolet Pressroom
Courtesy: Chevrolet Pressroom
Courtesy: Chevrolet Pressroom
The Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 did take a couple of hits with the tires and body serving as punching bags for the brutal treatment from the rocks. But as driver Chad Hall mentions below, the truck held together pretty well for a vehicle of its kind.
"This truck is a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. I clobbered some things on the course that would’ve broken the many of the vehicles we competed with in the past."
The Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 fielded by Hall Racing and Chevrolet Performance functioned as a test bed for a handful of new Chevy performance parts under development.
The level of modification was limited to racing body-mandated items like a roll cage, a 44-gallon racing fuel tank and racing seats with safety harnesses. The crew bolted on KC HiLites racing lights, two-way radios and a GPS system too as those were required to run the show.
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Now, here is the great piece of news for those who own a Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 and for the rest who are planning to buy one in the near future. Chevrolet saw this challenging race as a proper test of the off-road truck’s capabilities. The 3.6L V-6 engine and 8-speed automatic transmission, along with a modified version of ZR2’s Multimatic DSSV damper technology have fared well in that exam.
The rally truck had the Chevrolet Performance Exhaust system (available for all Colorado models now) and a bunch of new parts from Chevrolet Performance. If the testbed survived the trials of the Vegas to Reno race, then there is a solid chance of those new parts making it to Chevy dealerships in the near future.
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Mark Dickens, Executive Director of Global Accessories, Performance Variants, Parts & Motorsports, General Motors, confirms that in his statement.
"We cannot wait to pass along the benefits of what we’ve learned here under extreme use and at future races to our customers."
We are going to hold you on to that line, Chevy.
Source: Best in the Desert, Chevrolet Pressroom