2023 Chevy Colorado ZR2 Review: Tested Over Hundreds of Miles of Desert Racecourse

I joined eight other journalists, most with a photographer/videographer in tow, in Las Vegas to experience the first drive opportunity of the 2023 Colorado ZR2. This was no ordinary drive, however, but a proper adventure across Nevada. We drove over 700 miles, mostly on the off-road Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno racecourse. There were also plenty of highway transit sections thrown in to reach fuel, food, and shelter.

First off, I have to give huge props to a massive automotive manufacturer like Chevrolet believing in its product enough to take nine preproduction vehicles in the hands of journalists out into the remote deserts of Nevada. Even more so when the route is on a racecourse, the group is led by a race truck, and race numbers and last names have been affixed to each truck.

No, it wasn’t a race. But, the pace wasn’t slow and the adventure allowed us to evaluate the truck near its limits in a variety of off-road scenarios.

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In short: The 2023 Chevy Colorado ZR2 is a midsize performance truck that eats rough off-road miles nearly as quickly as it crushes highway miles. While the engine power delivery and exhaust note aren’t my favorite, there are only a few other small flaws to talk about with this truck.

Vegas to Reno Off-Road Race

Before diving further down the rabbit hole of what this midsize performance truck is all about, we need to talk about our first-drive testing adventure. The basics are that we got our names and chosen race numbers on our review truck window. Then we followed Chad Hall in his race truck from Vegas to Reno, mostly off-road. Our route followed the Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno racecourse.

The Vegas to Reno race is one of the premier off-road races in North America. It kicked off in 1996, with a few, under different names, happening in the early ’80s and again in the early ’90s. There are really only about five route options the race can take over its 500ish-mile course.

The BLM requires the race to grade the entire course after each year’s race. The course we did had been graded since the last race and had seen little traffic since, which means it was much smoother than it will be on race day this August.

Hall Racing

We were following Chad Hall in his new Colorado ZR2 race truck. It is 90%+ stock, besides some safety features, highly tuned shocks, and bigger — 35-inch — tires. Between Hall’s first Colorado ZR2 race truck and this new one, he has 39 race finishes since 2017 — a stock class record.

Recently there have been photos swirling of the new truck bent between the cab and bed as the truck crossed the finish line at the Mint 400. The issue was that where the roll cage was welded to the frame wasn’t reinforced to handle the new loads that the cage would put on the frame when taking big hits off-road at speed. At the end of the day, though, the truck finished under its own power, and once again won its class.

‘Not Racing’

On our trip, we had very few real issues with these preproduction trucks. In fact, 90% of the issues could have been fixed with some stronger sidewall tires and some Loktite.

We had quite a few flats, a few caused by valve stem issues from installation on the Desert Boss beadlock ring wheels and a bunch from gashes in the sidewalls. A few of the Desert Boss-equipped trucks also had their lightbar fall off. Which was just a matter of the mounting bolts not being torqued and Locktited on properly. Similarly, a transfer case skid plate fell off in the first few miles of trail. This was not from hitting anything, but from the bolt not being tight enough to start with.

We did have one truck that didn’t complete the off-road portion of the trip. But the cause was a driver error. The truck struck a large rock at a high rate of speed, on the drive shaft. This dented the shaft and then the rock sheared off the bolt that holds the leaf spring U-bolts on. That equated to the rear axle moving back a few inches, which crunched the bed sheet metal and flatted a tire. Otherwise, no issue, and after about an hour of on-trail repairs, the truck drove off the trail.

2023 Chevy Colorado ZR2 Review

Just like the rest of the 2023 Chevy Colorado lineup, the ZR2 model is only available in a Crew Cab/short box configuration. The ZR2 is 0.5 inches shorter, 2 inches taller, and has 1.2 inches more ground clearance (a total of 10.7 inches). It also has a 3.1-inch longer wheelbase, as the front axle has been moved forward that much.

Moving the axle forward provides more room for wheel travel and larger tire options. The 2023 Colorado ZR2 gets over an inch of front and 2 inches of rear wheel travel, over the last-generation ZR2. This provides more capability and comfort

The truck also has a unique frame that is reinforced and designed to work better with the refined and upgraded suspension. Of course, as with all ZR2 before it, the true magic sauce of this performance truck is the Multimatic DSSV dampers.

This new generation Colorado ZR2 also comes with 33-inch tires, as opposed to the 31s on the last gen. These are specially made for this truck’s Goodyear Wrangler Territory tires. The tires, and because of that the truck, are rated to 98 mph, with the truck having an electronic limiter set. I can confirm that the truck won’t go more than a few mph over that, even with a tailwind and going downhill.

A ZR2-specific front grille, skid plate, and rock sliders complement the added off-road chops the lift, shocks, and tires provide to this truck. An accessory package you can add to Colorado ZR2 is the Desert Boss. It gets you a winch-compatible front bumper, brush guard, fog lights, headache rack with lightbar, beadlock-capable wheels, and some graphics. I drove a Desert Boss-equipped truck on this trip.

The ZR2 trim of Colorado gets an underbody camera — on top of the many other onboard cameras — with a washer. It works quite well when navigating off-road obstacles without a spotter. The underbody camera system is also trickling down to the Z71 trim soon.

Inside the 2023 Colorado ZR2

Overall, being inside the new ZR2 is a very nice experience, and it’s quieter than most midsize pickups. It is a massive update over the old truck, in comfort, style, and tech.

The new infotainment screen is large, quick to respond, and offers tons of useful data — many displayed with cool graphics. There are very few hard buttons or switches in the truck, though, which means it takes scrolling through multiple menu screens to accomplish basic tasks like turning on the fog lights or turning off the traction control.

I really like the forged carbon look throughout the interior and the ZR2 badge on the dash is also a nice touch. While I’m not a huge fan of the bright yellow accent stitching, I give Chevy kudos for being different than every other off-road and ruggedized vehicle out there, which all use orange accents.

One thing both myself and my co-driver noticed over the 3 days on the trail is that the accent stitching on the center console is raised and right where you rest your elbow, which then gets rubbed raw when bouncing around off road.

2023 Colorado ZR2 Review: Driving Impressions

As with all modern vehicles, everything is fly-by-wire technology, this includes the brake pedal, gas pedal, and steering wheel. This makes feedback through those driver controls minimal, which isn’t great for performance driving. The steering is pretty precise, while vague. Tip-in on the throttle pedal is really good. But, there is a noticeable delay in horsepower delivery to the wheels, while torque is there at very low rpms.

Brakes

The brakes are an eBoosted system. This means the harder and faster you hit the brake pedal, the harder the brakes are applied. It is a much different feel than a traditional brake pedal that has more pedal travel that actively brakes, making it easier to modulate the brake pressure.

I can’t say I’m a fan from a left-foot braking performance-driving perspective. But, I can say that you can learn to adapt to the new system with a lighter more deliberate brake touch. Also, the brakes themselves are very good at getting the truck to stop quickly in any terrain.

ZR2 Specific Baja Mode

While we crawled over rocks slowly, and found deep sand and even snow, we were mostly blasting across higher-speed desert trails. For nearly all off-road conditions, I preferred the ZR2-specific Baja driving mode, with Performance Shift activated, and with full traction control off.

Baja mode allows for the most aggressive throttle and transmission shifting and the least amount of computer nannies getting in the way of sideways fun. Performance shift is activated in Baja mode only, and activated by applying heavy throttle (a green gear logo pops up on the driver display when activated). It keeps gears much longer in order to maximize horsepower delivery and allow purposeful wheel spin in low-traction conditions.

I really like that you are able to swipe a few menus (Front of truck logo button on the left of the home screen, Drive/Park button, click on the traction control box, and then select middle option for full off) and fully disable all computer nannies that might prevent you from having the sideways fun that this truck is made for.

In Baja mode full traction and stability control stay off at all speeds. In the other drive modes they reactivate when speeds exceed 35 mph.

Adventure-Ready Truck

This drive program gave me great confidence that the 2023 Colorado ZR2 is extremely durable and adventure worthy. I would, however, do a few things to ensure that it holds up on proper off-road adventures like this. Especially when you don’t have a support crew and a second spare tire on board.

Tires will be the first thing I change out, in order to have stronger sidewalls.

The second order of business would be to add a rear diff/driveshaft skid plate. That is the lowest point in the truck and a bit vulnerable.

I also think I’d skip the Desert Boss trim. I’m not a fan of the look. The headache rack-mounted lightbar is pretty useless. And, the beadlock-compatible wheels are kind of a pain to deal with when mounting tires.

I would buy the tailgate graphics that come with the Desert Boss, though, as they look quite good.

2023 Colorado ZR2: Pricing, Availability, & Upgrades

The 2023 Chevy Colorado ZR2 starts at $48,690. You can use the online builder now to design your own and price it out. Soon production will start. While official timing has not been announced, we expect deliveries to start in the third quarter of this year.

I’m a big fan of this truck and think it’s quite the value at around $50,000. While not inexpensive, this truck is playful on and off-road. It also provides all the creature comforts you’d expect in 2023. It has a heated steering wheel, heated and cooled seats, a good sound system, Wi-Fi, USB plugs, etc. It’s also just a good all-around size to use on the trail and around town.

Two really nice OEM accessories that we already know will be available are a steel drive shaft and jounce shocks. The jounce shocks are probably overkill for most users, as the DSSV dampers do an amazing job already.

The steel drive shaft might be a good idea for anyone that expects to do any rock crawly-like things with their ZR2. The stock aluminum one, once dented, can twist up easily with the truck’s impressive torque.

Fun Fact: The 2023 Colorado (including the ZR2); it uses the same bolt pattern as the full-size Chevy trucks. That should open up a ton of aftermarket wheel options for this midsize pickup.

The Bison Is Coming

A Bison edition of the new Colorado ZR2 has not officially been announced, but we know it’s coming, and soon. A camoed test mule truck parked in front of us at the final BBQ meal during our Vegas-to-Reno adventure. Chevy said nothing, but everyone knows what we were looking at.

The basics of what we know so far: 35-inch tires, 17-inch AEV wheels, taller DSSV dampers, small lift, jounce shocks at all four corners, steel front and rear bumpers, full skid plates, and different seat covers with red accents and digital-camo-like print. You’ll find more camoed images and learn all that we know now in our sneak peek of the ZR2 Bison.