Just a few days ago Chevy dropped the news of its Silverado Cheyenne concept truck, a high-power pickup with Camaro Z/28 parts that looks an awful lot like the spiritual successor to hot-rod trucks like the the GMC Cyclone. Theoretically, a performance pickup like the Cheyenne could do serious battle with Ford's sport-oriented 2014 F-150 Tremor. Too bad it's just a concept... or is it?
Last night Chevy showed us the Cheyenne in the flesh at a pre-SEMA dinner party (with a couple of Transformers to boot). While strolling around the cars on display, we were given a subtle heads-up, by a highly placed General Motors source, that the Cheyenne concept was one to pay special attention to. Far from confirmation of production intent, we'll grant you, but we think there's some credence to the idea of Chevy building the thing.
To start, it's clear that Chevy is getting pretty aggressive in moving performance parts developed for the Camaro out into its larger model ecosystem. Just yesterday we attended a driving event with the Performance Parts division (look for more on that later this week) where it was announced that ZL1 and 1LE Camaro suspension and powertrain parts would be offered for sale in the aftermarket and through dealers. Further, Chevy showed off Z/28 "concept parts" last night, indicating that aftermarket bits from the raciest Camaro are in the works, too.
Combine that parts accessibility with the spec sheet for the fast Silverado – Z/28 brakes and lightweight wheels, ZL1-like steering wheel, 420-horsepower, 6.2-liter V-8 engine – with the fact that cross-town rival Ford is making moves to recapture some of the performance truck niche, and we think something like a production Cheyenne makes a ton of sense. Plus, of course, we really want it to happen.
We don't expect to get anything like an official confirmation about Cheyenne plans in the near future, but we'll stay tuned for updates in the news cycle. In the meantime, SEMA is just starting to wake up, so expect a lot more out of Vegas this afternoon and evening.
Maybe? BRB Googling.
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