Chevy Debuts 2023 Silverado Police Pursuit Vehicle and We Want One
It's an off-road-ready truck with Brembos big enough for a sports car.
It's a truck for cops -- it's a cop truck!
The days when you could look in your rearview mirror, pick out the distinctive front end of a Ford Crown Victoria , and swear quietly at yourself for speeding are long gone. Police forces use all kinds of pursuit vehicles these days, and now, according to an announcement published on Wednesday by Chevrolet , there's another one, and it's a truck.
Yep, Chevy has its first-ever pursuit-certified truck, and it's called (unsurprisingly) the 2023 Chevrolet Silverado Police Pursuit Vehicle. As is the case with most cop-spec cars, it's mostly a regular Silverado but with a few changes making it fit for purpose. The truck starts as a crew cab, short-bed model with the 5.3-liter V8 engine, which, in this trim, produces 355 horsepower. That's mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission and four-wheel drive.
Ready to take on tough trails and tough criminals.
Where things start to get interesting is with the inclusion of six-piston Brembo front brake calipers paired with 16-inch rotors for increased durability. Chevy also adds a heavy-duty air filter because, let's face it, cop cars lead hard lives. The suspension comes courtesy of the non-police Silverado's Z71 package and features Rancho shocks. It also gets a locking rear differential and skid plates for off-road durability, plus 20-inch black steel wheels and BF Goodrich tires.
Being a truck first and foremost, Chevy wanted police departments to be able to tow with the Silverado PPV, and tow they can with its totally respectable 9,300-pound maximum towing capacity. With specs like that, towing boats or horses or whatever else police need to tow around should be no issue.
An important part of the change from regular vehicle to PPV is the upfit process which the police departments themselves usually handle. This adds all the various electronic necessities like lights, spotlights, computers, radios, sirens, PAs and the like. Naturally, that much gear puts a strain on the vehicle's electrical system, but Chevy thought of that. There are a bunch of auxiliary circuits and switches ready for these systems, which should make adding them a breeze.
Chevrolet plans to have the Silverado PPV available to municipalities around the US and Canada starting in late summer. Pricing doesn't matter (and hasn't been made available) because, friend, you can't buy one. You'll have to either join the police force or, more likely, wait a few years to snag one at a police auction.
