Colorado

Make
Chevrolet
Segment
Sports Car

In case you missed it, last year's SEMA Show in Las Vegas saw the introduction of a very special new truck from General Motors that none of us will probably ever have the privilege of buying: the GM Defense ISV Army truck. Based on the production Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, but with less bodywork and a much more imposing demeanor, the ISV is pure, unfettered intimidation. It is, in a word, awesome.

But even more awesome than the ISV, which will eventually be produced in numbers of around 2,000 and pressed into service by the US armed forces, is the truck GM didn't build.

A recent Instagram post from General Motors Design shows what the ISV might well have looked like if things had gone a bit differently. Still visibly based on the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, this tactical-looking truck sports a number of visual enhancements, including a dual-intake hood, a complex, cascading black grille, some oddly shaped black front fender flares, and a completely overhauled rear with a blocky side-swinging tailgate and low-mounted taillights.

Suffice it to say, such a truck would cost substantially more to produce than the final ISV design that GM ended up going with, but we know more than a few hardcore truck fans who would absolutely love to have something like it in their driveways.

Low-cost is the name of the game for the GM Defense ISV Army truck; not only is it based on a production truck design, using the ZR2's platform and 2.8L turbo-diesel engine, but somewhere around 70 percent of its parts are straight out of the Chevrolet Performance Parts catalog. That's not bad for a truck whose design requirements included carrying nine soldiers at speeds of 90 mph and being small enough to be loaded inside a CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

But if GM was looking for something to really take the fight to Ford's F-150 Raptor and the all-new Ram 1500 TRX, well, we think they might already have it.