Chevy Colorado ZR2 Aims for Off-Road Leadership with F1 Racing-Inspired Shocks [Video]

2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2
2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2

Chevrolet unveils the 2017 Chevy Colorado ZR2 off-road pickup truck on the eve of the 2016 LA Auto Show. What do Formula 1 race cars, Aston Martin One-77, Camaro Z/28, and the Colorado ZR2 have in common? Yep, they all share spool valve dampening shock absorbers. Who would have guessed!

Above all else, the big news for the Colorado ZR2 are the shock absorbers. You will not find a familiar brand name underneath the ZR2. The shocks are not from FOX Racing, King, Bilstein, or Rancho. All four corners of the truck are dampened by DSSV PSD by Multimatic. Chances are that most people have never heard of these acronyms or the Multimatic company itself.

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Here is the skinny. DSSV stands for Dynamic Suspensions Spool Valve. PSD is Position Sensitive Damping. If you understand internal bypass technology, then it will be easy to understand PSD. It uses the same principle to use internal ports to alter the flow of fluid depending on the position of the shock piston. DSSV is a little more difficult to explain, but it is a completely different way of engineering the shock piston head. Where “traditional” shocks use stack of flexible disks (or washers) at the piston head, the DSSV damper uses a spring-loaded spool valve. Why use a spool valve? Multimatic says that the spool valve can be manufactured in different sizes, with different internal spring rates, and with ports of different size, and all of this is mathematically predictable by the laws of fluid dynamics and formulas that stem from it.

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In other words, you can design a spool valve on the computer with precise pressure control and predictable real-world performance. A vehicle engineer can define the desired shock performance (soft under light loads and stiff under heavy loads), the computer spits out the spool valve specifications, and off you go for final tuning. It largely eliminates real-world shock tuning that shock absorber and truck manufacturers have been doing for decades. Of course, Chevrolet still had to do suspension dyno and real-world testing, but the time to get to a desired outcome was drastically shorter.

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That is a lot of scientific mumbo-jumbo. How does it apply to the real world of off-roading? Well, Formula 1 race cars, several road-going exotic cars, and sports cars have using DSSV for years in order to find the right balance of comfort versus all-out performance. Multimatic supplied shock absorbers to the 4-time F1 World championship winning Red Bull team. GM and Multimatic figured they can apply the technology to an off-road vehicle for the first time. It took a lot of extra engineering and verification, but the final product uses three spool valves and PSD to provide what they says is a much smoother off-road and on-road ride, as well as higher sustained speeds off-road.

Off-road racers, did you hear that? GM and Multimatic claims significantly faster off-road speeds with DSSV PSD technology. This would come in handy in the next Baja 1000 race. Interesting part is, this technology is being rolled out to the regular consumer first. New technologies traditionally trickle down to consumers from the racing world.

Lets get back to the basics. What is the recipe for creating one awesome off-roader? We have always said that you must have great power delivery, robust 4×4 system (including the transfer case and axles), ground clearance, high approach/breakover/departure angles, grippy off-road tires, and a specially tuned suspension that allows for articulation. The 2017 Chevy Colorado ZR2 promises to be the ultimate off-roader in the midsize segment. Naturally, this is still an open question until we are able to test it in the real world.

2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2

Consider the following specifications. The ZR2 is powered by a choice of two engines: 3.6L gasoline V6 and an 8-speed automatic transmission or a 2.8L turbo-diesel I4 with a 6-speed automatic transmission. You will be able to find these powertrain combination in other Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks. Why no power boost for the ZR2? You can bet we will ask GM this question. Please stay tuned.

The ZR2 checks off the following boxes: front and rear locking differentials, additional ground clearance, extra width for improved stability, higher approach/breakover/departure angles, GoodYear Wrangler tires. The only other production vehicles to offer true front and rear lockers are the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and the Ram Power Wagon.

2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2
2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2

Chevrolet is very serious about the off-road performance of the new Colorado ZR2. We are excited by it and cannot wait to test it.

Stay tuned for the debut video here.