Why is it that sometimes manufacturers are not building balls-out, fun run vehicles? You know, follow the muscle car Maxum from the 1960s: take a medium-size sedan and stuff the biggest engine you make between the rails. Trucks are strong enough to haul so they should also be able to hawl. Get it? That’s why we say that this is how Chevy should build the Colorado; with a 6.8-liter Duramax diesel engine. Right?

If it can’t take the extra umph then it can’t do the hauling that trucks are made to do. So now that we have that settled what else could it be? Is it about liability? Is it about saving the big stuff for later in the cycle of the truck? 

The big mod is the 6.8-liter Duramax Colorado

At Mecum’s 2020 Dallas auction next week this highly modified 2019 Chevy Colorado LT will be on the block. Of course, the big mod is the 6.8-liter Duramax. The largest engine that GM offers is the 6.6-liter, which comes in the 2021 Silverado HD. That one should also have the 6.8-liter just because. 

Besides the big bruiser, there’s a BDS suspension with a five-inch Fox coil-over conversion.  Baja Kits supplied their Prerunner long travel control arms, smoothing out the ZR2 Eaton e-lockers in the front and out back. The rolling rubber is 37×12.50-inch Falken Wildpeak M/T tires wrapped around 17-inch XD Series Machete Beadlock wheels.   

The lift, taller tires, and extra jounce make this 6.8-liter Colorado a viable off-roader

So the lift, taller tires, and extra jounce make this a viable off-roader. Other performance mods are the S&B Filters cold-air intake along with three-inch exhaust. All of these mods need some protection from the terrain. To that end, there are Bodyguard bumpers front and back, N-FAB RKR rock sliders, and some hogged-out wheel openings with flares. 

That’s what’s hidden beneath the Chrome Blue body. Outside there are some extra accessories to make living a bit finer once you get where you have to get. So we have an M-Racks roof rack, RotopaX liquid storage container with their mounting plates. An ARB refrigerator, generator, and on-board air are also found inside. Finally, you need a place to rest once the trekking day is done. So a Tuff Stuff Overland rooftop tent is the most prominent accessory visible to the masses. 

Part of the fun doing these projects is seeing your dream become reality

Part of the fun in doing these projects is the development and then the process of seeing your dream become reality. But this can and does get expensive. However, if you’re more into the end result rather than the project journey and you like what you see you should look at the Mecum auction. You’ll probably get into this Colorado rig for a lot less than it cost to build it. 

The only caution would be that with the engine swap there may be some states that don’t allow for an engine swap. Other than that one caveat we’d say go for it. The Colorado is the right size. And this one has that wow factor with the 6.8 Duramax.