Remember When GM Dropped A V8 in its Compact Pickup Trucks?

There are an terrible lot of examples the place GM does one thing nice. Sadly, the automaker typically takes away these good concepts simply as swiftly as they have been launched, leaving everybody baffled. It occurred to the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon: For a number of years, GM dropped a small-block V8 in its compact pickup, giving followers a sporty little hot-rod truck. Then GM snatched it away.

Welcome to Forgotten Cars, the place we delve into the historical past of the fascinating autos that haven’t crossed your thoughts in ages. Join us for an automotive journey down reminiscence lane.

It’s 2009. It’s a fairly turbulent time for GM, and the remainder of the world. The Great Recession formally resulted in June of 2009, however GM declared chapter that very same month. With $82 billion in belongings and $173 billion in liabilities, it was one of many largest bankruptcies in U.S. historical past. While it was a darkish time for the automaker, that didn’t cease GM engineers from creating some somewhat good things.

At the time GM filed chapter, the GMT355 platform had been on sale for a number of years. The truck was bought because the Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon, and Isuzu i-Series within the U.S., and provided around the globe beneath varied GM nameplates. For probably the most half, nothing was notably particular about these vehicles, which fought towards two much-loved opponents, the Ford Ranger and Toyota Tacoma. But then, one thing modified.

Since the times of the primary Chevy S-10, people wished GM to drop a small-block V8 within the firm’s compact pickups. (In reality, there was an aftermarket firm that may try this precise engine swap in your S-10.) The largest engine you might get in a first-gen Canyon or Colorado was a 3.5 or 3.7-liter inline-5 (a really distinctive engine for the section) with energy starting from 220 to 242 hp. But you weren’t gonna win any stoplight races.

After Toyota launched the Tacoma X-Runner, a sports activities automotive disguised as a pickup, GM consumers actually wished a muscular compact truck of their very own. So GM delivered.

For the 2009 mannequin yr, GM dropped a 5.3-liter small-block V8 into the Colorado, the Canyon, and the Hummer H3T Alpha, which used a modified GMT355 platform. While some folks might need hoped for a short-cab physique and a handbook transmission, you might solely get the V8 on extended-cab or crew cab-models, and the V8 — which made 300 hp and 320 lb-ft of torque — may solely be paired with a comparatively historic four-speed auto.

You may inform V8 fashions aside from common Colorado/Canyons by a small V8 badge on the entrance fenders, body-color bumpers, distinctive 18-inch wheels, and particular bucket seats. It wasn’t simply the run-of-the-mill pickup with an even bigger engine thrown in, although. GM truly tried to make a sporty machine out of the V8 twins. Colorado/Canyons geared up with the V8 obtained the ZQ8 sport suspension package deal (which dropped the trip peak by an inch), a faster steering ratio, and 235/50 Goodyear Eagle RS-A tires on 18-inch rims.

The consequence was a package deal that really carried out. Motor Trend identified the spectacular power-to-weight ratio. “In this case, it’s 13.6 lb/hp, which is nearly as good as that of an Acura TL or John Cooper Works Mini Clubman,” the journal’s interval assessment stated. And the additional energy from the V8 shaved a full two seconds off the truck’s 0-60 mph time in comparison with the 5 cylinder: It wanted simply 6.7 seconds to do the dash. The sport suspension additionally gave it spectacular skidpad numbers, pulling 0.61 g, pretty much as good as a Mazda 3 or Acura TSX on the time.

But it wasn’t all excellent news. The inside was, frankly, horrible, coated within the onerous plastics that plagued GMs merchandise of the time. And it was spartan. Motor Trend identified that there was no possibility for navigation and no auxiliary enter for an iPod or different music participant. Car And Driver known as the inside “rental car” and was one of many causes the truck completed final out of 5 in a comparability take a look at. “Cheap, hard plastic is as common in the Chevy as in the toy section at the local dollar store,” Car And Driver stated.

The largest downside with these vehicles, although, was the worth. Let’s use the extra widespread Colorado as our instance. To get the V8, you needed to spec the extended-cab or crew-cab configuration. The V8 required that you just order the top-of-the-line 3LT trim, which began at $23,330. From there you had so as to add on the necessary ZQ8 package deal at $3,935. If you threw in one other $1,395 for the previous few choices, like a sunroof, locking differential, and aspect curtain airbags, you have been sitting at or close to $30,000 for this truck. That was base- to mid-level Silverado pricing in 2009. While a V8 on this measurement truck sounds interesting, it loses its draw when you may get a way more succesful, spacious truck for across the identical worth.

While I all the time thought that the V8 Colorado/Canyon was solely provided in 2009. In researching this text, I used to be stunned to seek out out that the small-block was provided by means of 2012. Actually, two completely different variations of the small-block have been used within the Canyon and Colorado. To get extra data, I reached out to GM’s international chief engineer for the small-block V8, Jordan Lee. He defined particulars I had by no means heard earlier than:

The 5.3L V8 was used within the first Gen Colorado/Canyon from 2009 by means of 2012, 4 mannequin years. The 2009 mannequin used the LH8 engine however was changed with the LH9 engine in 2010. The LH9 was an identical to the LH8 with the exception that the LH9 applied a camshaft phaser for variable valve timing. This helped emissions in addition to drive high quality. The LH9 was utilized in 2010, 2011, and 2012 mannequin years.

The first-gen Colorado/Canyon ended up being the one time GM provided a V8 within the smallest truck in its portfolio. While the present era Colorado/Canyon is a superb truck, and the approaching 2023 mannequin guarantees to be even higher, it might have been good to have an eight-cylinder sendoff earlier than our inevitable EV future. When GM’s pickup line goes absolutely electrical, I count on values on the short-lived V8 Canyon and Colorado will skyrocket.