Fox Shocks Will Sell This Skunkworks Silverado With 700 HP and Wild Suspension
Fox developed the F-150 Raptor rival that Chevy won’t, and it’s an amazingly engineered piece of kit that goes far beyond the usual aftermarket upfit.
It's looking like Chevy will never build a super truck to rival the Ford F-150 Raptor. The Bowtie brand has had over a decade to put something together, and it's my hunch that they would have done it already if they were ever going to. Still, there are lots of people who want to see that, including Fox—y'know, the suspension supplier for the F-150 Raptor and Raptor R. To fill the void in the turnkey desert runner space, and maybe twist Chevy's arm a little, Fox is building 700-horsepower Silverados that feature way more than some stickers and a lift kit.
The 2024 Chevrolet Silverado Fox Factory Edition is serious. That's evidenced not only by its Whipple supercharged 6.2-liter V8, which also churns out a claimed 640 lb-ft of torque, but also by the semi-active Live Valve shocks and Brenthel brothers suspension. That's undoubtedly the most special part about the truck, which Fox plans on selling to the public with a three-year/36,000-mile warranty. Only 500 will be made altogether.
Just like in the F-150 Raptor, the Fox Live Valve shocks in this Silverado pick up on acceleration, braking, and steering cues while analyzing the terrain every few thousandths of a second. Because the suspension communicates with the truck's ECU and chassis systems, it's able to optimize compression and rebound base valves for that exact moment, resulting in an unbeatably smooth and stable experience. Rob Stanford, Fox's director of electronics and software, said it took multiple teams of drivers and engineers three years to make this all work seamlessly in the background with the Silverado's computers.
Additionally, Fox built in three terrain-specific drive modes that are easily selectable on the Silverado's dash. More customizable drive modes are coming soon, and Fox promises to keep improving the experience for owners with over-the-air updates. Whoever buys one of these can even monitor suspension telemetry through the Fox mobile app. There's so much more going on here than with typical aftermarket upgrades; it's a holistic leveling up that surely transforms the Silverado in Baja situations.
Now that Fox has done the work, you'd think it would be mighty tempting for Chevy to bring them on as a factory partner. Maybe, maybe not. But it has to be enticing.
The software is obviously impressive, but so is the hardware. Fox threw its 3.2-inch internal bypass shocks at the Silverado, which may seem strange to some people. Aren't external bypass units better for this kind of driving? Not always, as these position-sensitive shocks feature multiple zones of damping control. They're able to better manage hard bottom-outs while also providing "an initial catch" for landings, as Fox puts it. Once the shock goes past the ride zone in rebound or compression, it blocks off the bleed holes and forces fluid through the main piston. It's multi-faced in its function, then, providing better performance in essentially every condition.
Cooling said shock fluid is just as important. Fox uses a recirculating cap to keep it flowing, going in and out of a finned reservoir. This prolongs peak performance, even in high-heat desert driving. That's something the Silverado ZR2 does particularly well right now thanks to its Multimatic DSSV dampers.
Fox takes a thematically different approach to this Silverado than Chevy does with Multimatic, its suspension partner for the ZR2. That truck, which is the current top spec, is more modest and traditional—capable, no doubt, but it isn't a high-flyer. I tested one near Johnson Valley in California as well as in my neck of the woods, here in the Ozarks, and I loved its trail capability. That said, it's more at home in low-speed, technical environments like that. It couldn't keep up with a Raptor or TRX at full tilt.
That's why Fox enlisted the Brenthel brothers, who are more experienced than anybody in building 6100 and 7200 class Baja racing trucks, to fit one of their trick Baja Kits suspension packages to the front and rear.
They incorporate Fox Live Valve shocks alongside a long-travel setup that increases the pickup's overall track width by six inches. In total, it has 14.5 inches of usable suspension travel, plus stronger 6061-T6 billet upper control arms, boxed and internally gusseted lower control arms, and high-strength iron steering knuckles. This rig runs 37-inch BF Goodrich KO2 all-terrains so it needs tough suspension components.
Oh, and the rear leaf springs have been replaced with a pair of Baja Kits trailing arms made from billet aluminum. It really just keeps getting better.
I've spent more than 600 words already telling you about this truck and I've barely touched on the powertrain. The engine sends all its oomph through a 10-speed automatic transmission, which can dispatch it all via a JE Reel driveline to the semi-float Dana 60 rear axle with an ARB air locker, 3.73 gear set, and 35-spline chromoly shafts. If you need four-wheel drive, it can do that just as well with Chromoly CVs up front.
Capping it all off is a Borla exhaust that makes this sucker sing, even at idle.
This Fox Silverado looks like an absolute hoot. I reckon it would make one heckuva Raptor R rival. Chevy may or may not take it on as a factory project but either way, the product is available to the first 500 people with enough money to buy one. How much money that is, I'm not sure, as Fox hasn't said quite yet. You know what they say, though: If you have to ask ...
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