Sporty truck - Chevy's SSR retro truck thinks it's a roadster

srobertson

Chevy's SSR retro truck thinks it's a roadster

Let's say you're a healthy, normal person like me who likes sports cars -- those impractical, expensive conveyances with tiny trunks, powerful engines, noisy rag tops and only two seats. When a Mercedes SLK or a Corvette passes on the highway you squirm with envy. You go to a car show and stand drop-jawed in front of the new Chrysler Crossfire. You've considered robbing banks in order to make the payments on a new Porsche Boxter, and you'd be driving a Mazda Miata right now if it weren't for those pesky home mortgage payments.

Well, I've got a suggestion: buy a Chevy truck! Wait, don't turn the page! I'm serious! Chevy builds a truck that does everything the sports cars do, and then some. It's called the SSR, and this Super Sport Roadster will get you more smiles and admiring glances than the mailman gets when he hands out tax refunds. Nobody waved at me when I've cruised around town in a flashy Corvette or a fine-looking BMW roadster -- the glances I got were more like icy stares of envy.

But when I dropped the top on this week's bright yellow Chevy SSR and paraded down Main Street you would have thought I was John Travolta on opening night of "Grease." Mothers pushing strollers stopped to watch me go by. Pedestrians in crosswalks gave me the right of way. At a red light a little old lady in the car next to me rolled down her window, grinned and said, "What is that thing?" "It's a fedora ma'am -- Harrison Ford wore one in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,'" I said, trying to look the part. Of course, she wasn't asking about my hat -- she was intrigued by my limited-production, 390 horsepower, retro hot rod burbling marvelous sounds through chrome dual exhausts. "That's how a truck is supposed to look," shouted my 70s-something admirer.

She was right. The Chevy SSR, with its drop-dead, curvaceous body, is supposed to look like the Chevy trucks of 1947-53. The neat thing about SSR's beauty is that it elicits smiles from others. But the great thing about it is its practicality. What! Have I lost my mind? No. This car costs no more than many good sports cars. With nearly 400 horsepower it runs like a scalded rabbit. And with a four-foot long weathertight truck bed, it has more cargo utility than any sports car and just about any limousine you can name, for that matter. While most roadsters give you serious security issues thanks to their cloth convertible tops, the SSR has a fully retractable hard top. And what it lacks in passenger capacity, the SSR more than makes up for in fun capacity.

I first saw the SSR at the St. Louis Auto Show, and was told the showstopper would go into limited production in 2003. In 2004 it began showing up at a few Chevy dealers, powered by a 300-horsepower V-8 engine. Those early SSRs disappointed enthusiasts because despite their big engines, they were not very quick. Weighing a portly 4,700 pounds, the SUV-based SSR struggled to keep up with some luxury cars and popular two-seaters. But Chevy was not going to give up easily, so for 2005 it looked to sibling Corvette for more adrenaline and came up with an aluminum 6 liter V-8 rated at 390 horsepower and 405 pound-feet of torque. It sends the power to the rear wheels via either a heavy-duty four-speed automatic gearbox, or a six-speed manual. A limited-slip differential is standard. Towing capacity is rated at a relatively meager 2,500 pounds.

My test vehicle had the automatic, and the Chevy folks blessed it with a sporting temperament, meaning quick, positive shifts. At boulevard speeds merely thinking about going faster brought on a snappy downshift, a gush of power and a throaty roar from under the hood. The new SSR wants to run!

On a curvy country road the SSR is competent and planted. The ride is pleasant and well mannered; the suspension tuned more for cruising than for competitive driving. With the top up the ride is quiet, and with it down the airflow is fairly well managed. Even with 390-horsepower the SSR is not going to embarrass the 350-horsepower Mustang GT, nor is it going to run away from a Honda S2000. But it is going to provide more comfort than either one, carry all the supplies for the company picnic, and get its owner more attention from admirers.

But that extra attention does not come cheap. My test vehicle's MSRP was $48,050, which included $5,000 worth of options, such as chrome-plated wheels, special paint, a premium Bose sound system, and gorgeous leather heated seats. The 19-inch front wheels and 20-inch rear wheels are a standard SSR item.

The remarkable retractable hard top probably consumes a big part of the manufacturing cost, and is the thing everyone remembers. During the two days I had the vehicle I probably demonstrated the top more than a dozen times.

Onlookers beamed as I simply held down one button while the side windows retracted, the roof uncoupled from the top of the windshield, a compartment opened in front of the truck bed, and the roof split into three sections before disappearing behind me. Naturally, I took all the credit for Chevy's engineering feat.

Parking one of these limited-production glamour vehicles in your garage probably makes sense from an investment standpoint -- that's the argument I used on my wife, anyway. It didn't work, but she did say she thought my truck was sexy.

Steve Robertson of Robertson's Creative Photography is a car enthusiast and former staff writer/photographer for the Southeast Missourian. Contact him at sjr1@robertsonsphotography.com.