Caught! While GM can't show off the new 2007 half-ton Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra enough, it hasn't talked about the upcoming 3/4- and one-ton HD versions of those trucks at all. But that doesn't mean GM hasn't brought them to the public.
During a massive press conference at GM's even more massive Milford Proving Grounds in Michigan, a few dozen Silverados and Sierras were driven out onto a field to properly dazzle those assembled. The vast majority of these trucks were of the soon-to-go-on-sale half-ton variety, but a few were dualies of the we're-not-talking-about-those-yet variety. And at least one member of the press was alert enough to snap these quick, if somewhat fuzzy photos of the Chevy and GMC HDs.
Naturally, the HD trucks share a lot with their half-ton brothers, just as their predecessors had with their lower-capacity brethren. The significant differences are up front where the GMC and Chevy HD grilles seem to extend a bit deeper down into the front bumper. Further, it's apparent those front bumpers are more massive and extend lower to meet bumper-height requirements despite the heavy-duty trucks' higher ride height. And naturally the sideview mirrors are bigger and stretch wider than Yellowstone National Park. More subtle is how the Sierra HD's grille is slightly inset within its chrome surround (nearly flush on the Sierra 1500) and the how the horizontal bar bisecting the Silverado HD's grille is itself bisected by a darker line (the half-ton Silverado's center bar is solid).
Information on the mechanical makeup of GM's HD pickups is mostly inferential at this point. We figure the base engine will be the 364-horsepower, 6.0-liter Vortec V-8 that tops the half-ton Sierra/Silverado 1500 range with newly refined versions of the 8.1-liter gas-fired big-block V-8 and the 6.6-liter Duramax turbodiesel optional. There's also likely to be new transmissions offered.
The half-ton GM pickups feature an all-new coil-over front suspension system and rack-and-pinion steering. Will those make it onto the beefier HDs? All will be revealed when the new HDs go on sale in February.
