(DRUMHELLER, Alberta): You know the feeling you get when you pick up your hand and you see that you've got a whole bunch of trump cards and you know you're going to win a lot of tricks, and how that feeling makes you smile, but just a little so you don't seem rude? Well, I can see that smile on the faces of the people at General Motors, as they look at their new heavy-duty pickup truck lineup.
I had a chance to check this new hand of GM's out during two days of driving Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 2500HD/3500 models around the various topographies this part of Canada has to offer, and I can tell you that DaimlerChrysler and Ford are going to have a lot more trouble winning sales in the future. There are a lot of potentially winning cards in the GM hand, but their three engines are clearly their ace-king-queen combination.
Put simply and baldly, these three V8s deliver more power on paper and on pavement than their competitors do.
The Vortec 6000 replaces the Vortec 5700 as the base powerplant in these models, and it turns out 300 horsepower at 4400 rpm and 360 pound-feet of torque at 4000 rpm. GM's smallest engine choice sends power to the wheels through either a Hydra-matic 4L80-E 4-speed automatic or an NVG 5-speed manual.
The base price for a Silverado 2500HD 2WD regular cab with the Vortec 6000 with the manual transmission is $26,910.
Vortec 8100 replaces the 7.4-litre V8 as the optional gasoline engine in GM's heavy-duty trucks, and it produces 340 horsepower and 455 pound-feet of torque. The transmission choices here are a 6-speed ZF manual or a 5-speed Allison 1000 automatic.