The Chevrolet Silverado--Part I - PickupTrucks.com
(Editor's note: In honor of the fact that GM will be coming to market with an all-new light-duty pickup truck next year, we thought we'd take a look back at the two most recent versions of the Chevrolet Silverado model: the GMT800 and GMT900. In 1996, Chevy’s C and K pickups — aka GMT400s — remained GM’s best-selling vehicles. That same year, they got a new family of Vortec engines: a 4. 3-liter V-6, 5. 0- and 5. 7-liter small-block V-8s, and a hulking 290-horsepower, 7. 4-liter big block. The next year came a front-passenger airbag, Electronic Variable Orifice power steering and a tighter-turning radius for K1500s. In their last year before bowing to the all-new GMT800 pickups, the 1998 C/Ks were further upgraded with a Passlock... Then came arguably the most substantial upgrade of Chevy’s full-size pickup line since World War II. To reflect their newness, the C/K’s long-running top-trim-level Silverado badge was applied across the board. “The launch of Chevy’s new 1999 Silverado full-size pickup – the single highest-volume product GM offers – can be summed up in four words: bigger, faster, stronger and smarter,” crowed the press release. “Silverado is the epitome of the Chevy Truck brand image,” Chevrolet Marketing General Manager Kurt Ritter said. Source: news.pickuptrucks.com
