The Chevy Beast off-road concept looks fit for the Halo universe
If Master Chief needs a new ride, maybe the Beast will do.
Chevrolet unwrapped one heck of a concept that it plans to show off at the 2021 SEMA show. Revealed on Monday, the Chevy Beast as it's known looks like a boss supercharged 6.2-liter V8-powered ride meant for Master Chief himself. Except this won't be heading to Halo -- just to Las Vegas this week for show.
Officially, Chevy called this an off-road "concept vision" meant to showcase "the ultimate in high-performance desert running." Based on a modified Silverado chassis, engineers and designers shortened the truck's bones and created a 4130 chromoly tubular safety structure. Wrapping it is a custom, lightweight body that seats four passengers. Under the hood is that supercharged LT4 V8 mentioned above, which cranks out 650 horsepower.
Engineers then dreamt up a conceptual long-travel suspension specifically for off-roading and widened the chassis' track to 91 inches for stability and driver control while blasting through the desert. A 10-speed automatic sends power to a two-speed transfer case, which then distributes the 650 ponies to meaty 37-inch off-road tires.
Fun for four friends.
This thing truly looks the part, too. It's a lot like if the Colorado ZH2 fuel cell pickup and a United Nations Space Command Warthog gave birth to something. A clamshell-style front end dominates, while the rear is void of basically any overhang to ensure maximum speed and angles to handle steep grades and the like while blasting about. A couple of spare tires provide peace of mind, too, should one of those 37-inch tires let drivers down. It's all futuristic enough, but believable that Chevy should probably build something like this tomorrow. (That's just me speaking.)
Inside, it's a little more futuristic with two 7-inch monitors that provide the driver all sorts of vehicle function controls and performance data. Everyone plops down into Recaro performance seats, though, complete with four-point harnesses.
Will Chevy actually build something like this? Probably not, but SEMA is meant for dreaming, after all.
