2003 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Ls Extended Cab Pickup 5.3l 4wd 4x4 Z-71 Z71 on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 2003 Chevrolet Tracker

When General Motors created the Geo brand to sell vehicles designed and — in some cases — built by Japanese partners, the first four models were introduced for the 1989 model year: the Metro (Suzuki Cultus), Prizm (Toyota Sprinter), Spectrum (Isuzu Gemini) and Tracker (Suzuki Sidekick). Geo got the axe in 1997, with the Metro, Prizm and Tracker becoming Chevrolets. Of those, the Tracker survived the longest, with U.S.-market sales continuing into 2004. Here's an example of a very late Tracker, found in a North Carolina car graveyard recently. The 1989-1997 first-generation Trackers were based on the Suzuki Sidekick, while the 1998-2004 Trackers had the Suzuki Vitaras (not to be confused with the much grander Grand Vitaras) as their siblings. Production of these trucks for the South American market (as the Chevrolet Vitara) continued in Ecuador all the way through 2014. The Tracker name has also gone onto some versions of the Chevrolet Trax around the world. This one is a base four-door hard top/rear-wheel-drive model, which had an MSRP of $17,330. That's about $29,789 in 2024 dollars. You'll find one in every car. You'll see. The engine is a Suzuki 2.0-liter straight-four rated at 127 horsepower and 134 pound-feet. A five-speed manual was base equipment, but very few American vehicle shoppers wanted three pedals by the middle 2000s. This truck has the Aisin four-speed automatic. We like it loud. It appears that someone associated with this truck graduated from Julius L. Chambers High School last year. In the United States, the Tracker was replaced by the Saturn Vue. If Tracker can handle (unspecified Middle Eastern country), it can survive the jungle back home. Siempre contigo.

Vert-A-Pac train cars kept your Chevy Vega's price in check

Our apologies to those who've seen this before, but for the rest of the class, how awesome are these pictures of the Vert-A-Pac shipping system General Motors came up with to ship the Chevrolet Vega back in the 1970s? Developed along with Southern Pacific Railroad, GM was able to double the amount of Vega models it could ship by packing them into the unique storage cars vertically.
At the time, rail cars could fit 15 vehicles each, but Chevrolet was able to lower shipping costs by making it possible to ship 30 Vegas per rail car, in turn allowing the price of the Vega to remain as low as possible. Each rail car had 30 doors that would fold down so that a Vega could be strapped on, and then a forklift would come along and lift the door into place. All the cars were positioned nose down, and since they were shipped with all of their required fluids, certain aspects had to be designed specifically for this type of shipping, including an oil baffle in the engine, a special battery and even a repositioned windshield washer reservoir. See for yourself in our image gallery above.

Camaro driver clocked at 171 miles per hour

Chevy's 2016 Camaro SS is a fantastic piece of automotive engineering. It is also, apparently, very, very fast. This latter fact was perfectly illustrated when, on April 8, a Camaro SS driver was nailed in Two Harbors, Minnesota for doing 171 mph. According to WFAA, the unnamed speed demon was flying down Highway 61 near Two Harbors when Hermantown, MN Deputy Police Chief Shawn Padden clocked him at an eye-watering 171 mph. He then recorded the speeder at 168 and 141. At the time, Deputy Chief Padden was working with Minnesota State Patrol on an anti-DWI program called "Toward Zero Deaths". Padden, who was interviewed by the Duluth News Tribune, said he was surprised at the driver's sheer speed. "When he went by me, it was a blur," Padden told the News. "You get used to seeing people going 65 or 70 and what that looks like. But I've never seen anything like this. It's like a rocket on wheels." Fadden chased the Camaro down eventually, but it took some doing. To catch the Camaro, he pushed his Dodge Charger Pursuit to 135 mph just to get into range so the Camaro could see his emergency lights. The speeding driver was ticketed for careless driving, but may lose his license due to a Minnesota law that gives courts the option of revoking licenses for drivers caught doing more than 100 mph. News Source: WFAA, Duluth News Tribune Weird Car News Chevrolet Dodge Driving Safety Coupe Police/Emergency Performance Sedan camaro ss camaro