Oliver, BC – This fall, we were given the opportunity to test Chevrolet’s toughest ZR2 off-road trucks - the Colorado ZR2 Bison and the Silverado 1500 ZR2 - at the new ZR2 Off-Road Academy at the Area 27 Motorsports Park, on an off-road track developed in partnership with General Motors itself. Many of the tests we would be carrying out reflect what GM itself puts these trucks through during their development.
2024 Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 test drive
Don’t think that just because these two trucks are rooted in mass-market popularity and appeal that their transitions to off-road spec are all show and no go. There’s a lot to them that makes them properly suited for this kind of work.
Of the two trucks we tested, the larger Silverado ZR2 actually undergoes a somewhat less intense transition, though the functional adds are present. It gets 33-inch off-road tires, Multimatic spool-valve dampers that offer a wider range of motion and response to deliver better performance over a multitude of surfaces and environments, two-speed transfer case and electronic-locking front and rear differentials.
The Silverado ZR2 also gets redesigned bumpers for better approach and departure angles as well as underbody skidplates for better protection.
The Silverado ZR2 is hardcore, surpassed only a Bison version that adds even more off-road tech, courtesy of American Expedition Vehicles, or “AEV”). But it doesn’t look as different from the standard Silverado as the Ford F-150 Raptor and Ram TRX do from their more pedestrian counterparts.
Indeed, the Silverado has traditionally been the less aggressively-styled model (unless we’re talking about the HD mode, which is a different story entirely) so the ZR2 is sticking with that. But there’s a function to its form as well. While the Raptor and TRX are significantly wider than their brethren, making them ideal “prerunning trucks” – that is to say trucks ideally suited for fast desert driving – the Silverado’s narrower body allows for easier movement on tighter trails - the likes of which we would be traversing during our test.
Powertrains of the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado ZR2
Under the hood, the ZR2 gets a pair of engines to choose from. There’s a 6.2L V8 good for 420 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque or else a 3.0L turbodiesel 6-cylinder good for 305 hp and 495 lb-ft. Both come equipped with 10-speed automatic transmissions.
Our tester was equipped with the diesel, and that made for some very interesting performance on the narrow, gravel-coated roads we traversed among the hills and vineyards of British Columbia’s Okanagan region.
In this dusty environment, the Silverado ZR2 was the perfect companion. Since the ZR2 is built with off-roading in mind from the get-go, you don’t have the same variety of drive modes as with other Silverados. But you do get an all-encompassing off-road setting as well as a Terrain mode that acts as one-pedal drive mode for off-roading through cruise control. When active, hill descent and creep control take care of transmission, braking and throttle duties allowing the driver to focus on steering.
During our drive, there were several steep, narrow descents (one of which had us threading the needle through two narrowly spaced power pylons) during which this mode came in handy. Hearing the ABS and so forth doing its work without any diver input whatsoever is slightly jarring at first, but like GM’s ingenious Super Cruise autonomous driving tech, once you learn to work with it, it quickly becomes natural.
Otherwise, the traction displayed by the Silverado ZR2 was a revelation; same for the diesel power on-tap. This truck feels nicely unstoppable over this kind of terrain. In addition to the loose gravel surface, the roads we were on had a number of artificial obstacles as well. This allowed us to put the truck through its paces on less shall we say “normal” roads. We drove over embedded logs and through off-camber mogul-like passages.
Personally our favourite was keeping the two passenger-side tires on a rail through a long left turn. That was a challenge, but thanks to the Silverado’s surprisingly precise low-speed steering and the cameras you get over the wheel, we eventually made it almost all the way around.
All in all, the truck was so capable here, we felt like we were taking it to about 40 percent of its off-road ability, if that.
2024 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison test drive
We also had the chance to put the Silverado’s smaller sibling the Colorado through its paces on the same roads, but also on the off-road playground full of all manner of obstacles.
The Colorado ZR2 Bison is wider (by about 50 mm) than the standard truck. That may not sound like much, but thanks to the ZR2’s big wheels and flared fenders it looks wider than the on-paper figures.
Those tires of the Bison version of the ZR2 takes the already more hardcore ZR2 and makes it even more so by adding even chunkier off-road tires (the ZR2’s standard 33-inch tires are replaced by 35-inch Goodyear Wrangler M/T beasts on the Bison), with the option to add a full-size spare in the bed, trophy-truck style.
We also find redesigned bumpers embedded with Rigid foglights as well as winch support, extra underbody protection and even more jounce control from the off-rad dampers. In short, this looks like a truck that’s ready for everything.
And we threw everything at it, courtesy of Area 27’s off-road playground that opened just last year. There were step climbs and descents over a central hill that gave us the chance to test the creep/hill descent controls systems as well as the multi-view cameras.
Those cameras were hugely helpful as we climbed, because on a 35-plus degree grade in a high-riding truck with a hood bulge, you don’t see much through the windshield except the wild blue yonder. A glance at the forward-and-down facing camera on the Colorado’s 11.3-inch central display was a big help. Here too, it all takes a little getting used to but once done, it quickly became an indispensable tool.
No digital enhancements can make up for the Bison’s old-school off-roading, properly tangible bits like those tires, the spool-valve dampers and of course the powerplant: a 2.7L turbo 4-cylinder with 310 hp and 430 lb-ft of torque plus 10-speed automatic transmission.
The power is nice – this is one quick little truck – but more impressive is the truck’s chops as it attacks the academy’s multitude of obstacles. Just on the other side of the central hill, there’s a veritable playground of off-camber bumps and berms that we were encouraged to attack at numerous angles and actually try to get the Colorado stuck. It took some time but eventually I managed to get it high centred (by making a move no competent off-roader would ever do) but a quick lock of the diffs with the press of a button pulled me out in no time.
It was darn fun dipping and diving through that patch. And then, there are parallel routes to exit the area. One is flat but gravely while the other takes you over numerous bumps to get a sense for how the truck feels when driven over repeated large bumps.
Spoiler alert: so long as you keep speeds to about 40 km/h, it feels just fine here as the spool dampers and big ground clearance afforded by the tires soak everything up in stride.
In true off-roading fashion, the most fun we had during our time occurred at low low low speeds – we’re talking in the 5-10 km/h range. There are two modules – if you want to call them that – that really test any off-roader’s low speed mettle: a run of parallel concrete blocks buried to various depths into the dirt below and what’s best described as a rock pit.
The first one – we took to calling them the “Lego blocks” – really showed how the Colorado can handle climbing over vertical obstacles. When correctly lined up, those tires clamber up these things to the point where – and I am not exaggerating when I say this – they seem half as difficult to traverse from inside the truck as they look from outside. Even with a rear tire dangling off the end of one, the other three are there to gamely drag you along. Unless you looked from the outside you wouldn’t even know this was happening.
The one activity I wanted to keep doing over and over again, though, was the rock pit. Picture, if you will: you’re coming up on what looks like a steep downward section. Which, as expected, it is except not only is it steep, its completely, utterly, covered with basketball-sized boulders. There is no smooth path through here; if you’re going, you’re going rock climbing.
Luckily, the ZR2 Academy instructors were fantastic at guiding us through using hand signals and radios. But know there are also a few different paths through the jumble that are a little easier to undertake. Which, if I’m being honest, wasn’t really what I was looking for, here, since this was the Colorado ZR2 Bison and everything we’d thrown at it so far had been taken with full confidence.
The toughest element, though? The stairs, perhaps because going uphill mixed with constant repetition of the same obstacle – a foot-high stair – starts to sap one’s confidence a little. It wasn’t that the truck couldn’t handle it but rather the operators – us –thinking a too much about what was going on below.
We eventually succeeded in traversing the whole thing, though, and you’d never have guessed going 10 km/h could feel. That’s just what happens when you’re at the wheel of something as focused as a Colorado ZR2 Bison.
About the ZR2 Off-Road Academy
Established in 2023, the academy was developed in partnership with General Motors. There are two levels of instruction available: the three-hour off-road experience costing $395 per driver that has you spending your time in the off-road park. The Level Two course costs $895 per driver and it runs for a whole day. Participants spend the morning in the park and the afternoon putting the skills they learned to the test over real-world roads.
