LS9-Powered Chevrolet Colorado Is A Small Package With A Big Punch

When you mention the word “racing” to people, they will typically think of a drag car or maybe a high-performance street car. However, most would not consider a truck a high-performance machine. After all, trucks are just for pulling trailers or hauling things around, right?

Being from the great state of Texas, I know this is not the case. I remember seeing a full-size boosted truck walk a C6 on the highway with a 55-gallon drum of E-85 in the bed. And while this may be embarrassing to the C6 owner (sorry, Cody), It’s highly satisfying to see an unsuspecting car owner get stomped by a pickup.

There’s a reason why trucks are always at a disadvantage on the track. Elements like excessive weight, lousy aerodynamics, and terrible weight distribution give the upper hand to a car. Unless the other vehicle is a heavyweight Charger or Challenger, but I digress. Of course, that doesn’t stop owners from going buck wild to modify their trucks to make them do some pretty extreme things on and off the track.

Everything about this LS9 swapped Colorado is perfection.

At first glance, even at 100-feet away, you can see that Izzy’s 2006 Colorado Extreme is far from stock. Rocking a super bright orange paint job, Just about everything regarding this Chevy stands out and grabs your attention. From about 50 feet away, the Colorado has an aggressive low profile stance matched with Weld Racing beadlock wheels. And it was at this point, we could tell this truck meant business. All of the Colorado’s subtle details really start to play when you get right next to it.

The M&M floor shifter looks right at home in between the Recaro seats.

The interior of the Colorado has Izzy sitting in a Recaro racing seat, looking at a beautiful Holley digital dash for data acquisition. The 12.3-inch Pro Dash is encased behind the factory dash bezel paired with the mini screen to display additional information. The factory shifter was removed and replaced with an M&M floor shifter to finish off the super clean interior.

The Nitrous Outlet bottles are placed perfectly on either side of the supercharger coolant tank.

The bed of the Colorado is all business too. Two custom-painted bright orange Nitrous Outlet bottles were the first thing we noticed when the bed cover was opened up. We then saw the ice tank and fuel cell perched upon a Bedrug. And while the bed of this Chevy is nice, it’s what’s under the hood that really got our attention.

My favorite thing about the truck is being able to just hop in fire it up and go drive. – Izzy

With a Kong Performance upgraded, LS9 stuffed under the hood the Colorado rockets to a 9.2-second  1/4-mile time.

A set of ZR1 badges were somewhat subtle on the truck. But, when the hood was opened up, all modesty was gone as we stared at the beautiful LS9-based engine out of a ZR1 Corvette. The LS9 in the Colorado extreme cranks out a respectable 740 horsepower on 91-octane and a more impressive 850 horsepower on E-85. The ECU controlling the truck is the legendary Holley Dominator. The Colorado spares no expense in any category when it comes to the modification side of the pickup, and the fit and finish are as good as any truck we’ve seen at past shows. This thing is flawless.

The stance of the ZR1 Colorado was on point and the black and polished Weld Wheels fit this build perfectly.

Izzy told us that the smaller, lighter, weight truck is super tame to drive on the street while cruising. On the track, however, it’s an entirely different animal. Power from the 850-horsepower LS9 make its way threw a fully built 4L80 to the Fab 9 inch rear end. The combination depends on a set of Mickey Thompson drag radials to put the power to the ground. The truck’s total weight is a respectable 3800-pounds with Izzy in the driver seat. This combination has a solid platform and has pushed the Colorado to a 9.2-second 1/4-mile time at a speed of 152 MPH.

Nothing to see here; it’s just an average LS9-powered 9-second truck.

Izzy’s favorite thing about the truck is that he can hop in and cruise around town with the air-conditioning on. Or pull up to the track and run a 9-second pass which tends to upset a lot of people in the other lane. So you might want to think about this truck next time you line up against another. You might be in for a big surprise.

The ZR1 badges are a subtle touch that most people would not even take a second glance at.

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About the author

Chase Havins

If you ask his friends about him, they will say he's a speed freak. If you ask him about it, he will tell you that it's just a little more fun when you live at wide open throttle.
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