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| 2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 |
I'm not the kind of guy who complains
about the number of stops required to get me from point A to point B.
Sure, I'd like a direct flight from Greenville-Spartanburg Airport
(GSP) to Podunk, USA, but that's just not possible. With only one or
two exceptions, direct flights out of GSP to places I actually want
to go simply don't exist. And, if they do exist, they are on airlines
on which I refuse to fly.
Delta, American, Southwest, United and
Allegiant all service GSP. Although I constantly hear good things
about Southwest, I have no interest in its cattle-call boarding nor
its first-come-first-served seating. I fly way too much to elbow my
way onto every flight. Not to mention, Atlanta is its only nonstop
destination from GSP. Allegiant has sporadic non-stops to four
Florida cities. Ft. Lauderdale is the only one of the four that I
would have any reason to take. Allegiant, however, doesn't fly there
every day. Since United began beating up paying passengers and
dragging them off the plane to make room for employees it wants to
fly somewhere, I have vowed never to fly United again.
I am left with Delta and American.
Delta has been my airline of choice for more than 30 years. Having
racked up more than 1.8 million miles on Delta, I'm not about to
switch carriers now. In a pinch, though, I will fly American, if
Delta can't get me where I need to go. From GSP, Delta only flies
non-stop to Atlanta, Detroit and NYC. American has a few direct
flights to cities like Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia.
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| It just doesn't get much prettier than this. |
Recently, a client asked me to attend
the 2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 truck event near Grand Junction,
Colorado. Grand Junction is one of those
you-can't-get-there-from-here locations. Well, you can, obviously,
but regardless of the airline, it means at least two connections from
GSP.
Chevy's travel planners were desperate
to book me on United. Conceived as a one-night program, this truck
event began the afternoon of the first day and finished early
afternoon of day 2. Because of my home base and the distance, I
couldn't leave Grand Junction any later than noon and still make it
back to GSP on the second day. A second night in Grand Junction was
always figured into my schedule. Even at that, the flight bookers
wanted me to fly United because it had flights allowing me to arrive
in Grand Junction two hours earlier than anything Delta offers. Once
in Grand Junction, media attending the event still had nearly a
90-minute drive to the Gateway Canyons Resort near the Colorado/Utah
border.
Digging in my heels, I refused to fly
United. Despite my connecting flight from Detroit back to GSP being
two hours late taking off – putting me into GSP at 1 a.m. on day 3
– I would make the same choice again. I'm not rewarding United's
poor behavior by adding to its revenue stream. Jerks.
I arrived at Gateway Canyons Resort
around 4 p.m. on the first day. I was too late to participate in the
afternoon's activities. I wasn't upset. Chevy had almost a full day
of on-road and off-road driving scheduled for day 2.
Upon arriving at the resort, I had just
enough time to settle into my room, change for cocktails at 6:00, and
wander around the grounds a bit. Resting on roughly 2,000 acres,
Gateway Canyon Resort is everything most of us imagine a luxury
resort to be and more. It includes a cattle ranch, spa, helicopter
tours, fishing, ATVs and even a car museum. Surrounded on all sides
by towering red-rock cliffs and mesas, its beauty is nothing short of
stunning.
Although I had driven a Colorado pickup
from the airport to the resort – during which I had an impromptu
dialog with Officer Friendly, who allowed me to carry on my journey
unmolested with nothing more than a stern talking to – day 2 was my
first encounter with the Colorado ZR2 package.
If you haven't guessed, ZR2 is an
off-road package. There is much more to it than some badging, and
wheels and tires. Immediately, its enhanced front-end styling
captures one's attention and fires up the imagination. Functionally,
the fresh front-end teams with the ZR2's suspension, lifted 2 inches,
to dramatically increase ground clearance and angle of approach. The
rear bumper has been reworked, eliminating the step, and the spare
tire moved into the cargo bed to increase the angle of departure.
Adding 3.5 inches between the wheels on both front and rear axles
increases the track, giving the ZR2 a more aggressive and stable
stance.
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| The Multimatic DSSV damper. |
Adding to ZR2's off-roading resume,
Chevy installed the first-in-class front and rear electronic-locking
differentials. Also segment exclusive are the revolutionary Dynamic
Suspensions Spool Valve (DSSV) dampers supplied by Multimatic. In
addition to supplying the dampers for the Camaro Z28, Multimatic is
known for making dampers for Formula One race cars. Different than
the shocks found on most cars and trucks, the specially designed DSSV
dampers on the ZR2 allow for on-pavement comfort, as well as the
increased wheel travel required when off roading.
When opting for the ZR2 package,
consumers have the choice of a 186-horsepower 2.8-liter 4-cylinder
Duramax Diesel or a 308-horsepower 3.6-liter gasoline engine. Chevy
mates the V6 with an 8-speed automatic transmission and the Duramax
diesel with a 6-speed automatic tranny.
Our wheel time included highway, as
well as some fairly gnarly off-roading. We even did a little rock
crawling. The Colorado ZR2 performed brilliantly across the board. My
drive partner and I found the diesel a bit slow to answer the
throttle, but it was a real go-getter on the rock-crawl event.
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| Palisade Ranch of the Gateway Canyons Resort foreman Brian Redmond throwing a rope. |
I managed to shoot three just3things
videos on this trip. One was with GM's mid-size-trucks chief
engineer. I also caught up with the resorts marketing manager, who
provided the 411 on the Gateway Canyons area. Finally, despite an
airport shuttle leaving about the same time I needed to, Chevy
allowed me to drive a Colorado back to Grand Junction, which gave me
the opportunity to stop at the resort's ranch to grab a video with its foreman on the
art of roping.
A pain in the caboose to get to, the
Colorado ZR2 event proved to be well worth the trouble.
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