Chevrolet Silverado ZR2
Why 8.1: Multimatic DSSV spool-valve dampers — the technology Multimatic developed for Formula 1 and put in the Camaro ZL1 1LE and the Ford GT — bolted to a full-size pickup with front and rear electronic lockers, a two-inch lift and 33-inch mud tyres.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
A 6.2 pushrod small-block with a big-bore exhaust and no interest in refinement: it idles with a genuine lope and hardens into a proper American bellow above 3,000 rpm. But Dynamic Fuel Management drops it to four cylinders at every opportunity, and 5,600 rpm is a short ladder. Honest V8, geared for towing.
8-cylinder · naturally aspirated · 5,600 rpm redline · rated 6.4 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €64k (2022) → €46k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
Two ISOFIX positions on the outer rear seats, the outer pair being the ones the standard covers.
The rear anchors are the supported route — the manual points child seats there, and front-passenger ISOFIX is the exception rather than the rule. A belt-mounted seat up front needs the airbag off, and cars with a rear row don't always fit a deactivation switch, precisely because the rear seats exist.
Derived from production years and seating layout, not a per-car source. ISOFIX was standardised as ISO 13216 in 1997, required on new EU model types from 2011 and on all new EU cars from 2014.
The long version
Chevrolet came to the desert-truck fight late. The Raptor had owned the category since 2010 and the Ram TRX had escalated it to 702 hp by 2021, and rather than chase either on power, GM went after the damping. The DSSV units use machined spool valves instead of shim stacks, which gives a genuinely repeatable damping curve at temperature — the reason they run in Formula 1 — and the ZR2 is the only full-size pickup that gets them. It rides better than a standard Silverado on the road and does not fade the way a shimmed damper does after a long dirt section. What matters here is the ownership pattern rather than the engineering, and pickups are the most honestly used vehicles on this site. A ZR2 costs around $70,000, which puts it well below a TRX, and the people buying at that price are buying a truck they intend to work and take somewhere at the weekend. There was a brief moment in 2022 when every off-road pickup carried a dealer markup and a handful changed hands for a profit, which is what keeps the flip factor short of the top. Since then the incentives have come back, the values have settled, and what is left is a very good truck accumulating miles in Arizona.