We’ve seen a few renderings and bits to make the 2015 Chevy Colorado a little more exciting, but this “400 horsepower” supercharged desert toy is my favorite modified version of the mid-sized truck so far.
Keg Media put this vehicle together for the 2015 SEMA show, and we finally got our hands on a decent crop of photos of it.
Power comes from Chevy’s 3.6 V6 with a Ripp supercharger and K&N air filter. A dangerous setup for the desert, as it’s likely to feed your engine a lot of sand, but it supposedly bumps the output from a stock 305 horsepower to 400. Ripp says you’ll be able to order the kit as soon as January.
That big suspension up front is a new long-travel kit from Dirt King Fabrication, which you can get already for a little under $3,000. Atlas Suspension leaf springs are on the back.
With Icon coilovers, the Colorado stands 3.5” wider than stock with 14” of travel.
On the outside, NFab has fitted a beautiful prerunner bumper in their standard style along with a pair of rock sliders. Those wide-stance fiberglass fenders and bedsides were done by McNeil Racing.
The truck looks mean. I’m a real sucker for black-on-white but mostly I’m just excited to see that people are finally making desert parts for the new Colorado.
In my anecdotal experience, Fords and Toyotas are the trucks of choice in the American southwest and Mexican sand but a stronger aftermarket could do a lot for Chevy in this scene.
Of course which trucks people drive and what you can get parts for is a bit of a chicken-egg situation. In the off-road and adventure world, proven performance counts for a lot and it’s hard to get the market to accept a newcomer.
For that parts train to keep running on the new Colorado we’re going to have to see some interest in this first batch of bits. Think this is an idea worth investing in, or should the Colorado stay on the streets with the crossovers and compacts?
Hit us up if you’ve been wheeling in your 2015 Colorado or Canyon and have some ideas about what you’d like to do to it!
Images via Ripp Superchargers
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.