Chevrolet SSR
Muscle · Chevrolet
Chevrolet SSR: The Retro Pickup With a Folding Hardtop
The Chevrolet SSR, short for Super Sport Roadster, is a retro-styled pickup with a retractable hardtop that Chevrolet built from 2003 to 2006. Its design was inspired by Chevrolet's 1947 to 1955 Advance Design trucks.
The SSR was the production version of the SuperSport Roadster concept shown at the 2000 Detroit Auto Show, which used a Chevrolet S-10 chassis. The production truck got its own frame, a version of GM's GMT360 platform called the GMT368, and a steel retractable hardtop developed with input from Karmann and engineered and supplied by ASC. Most of the body panels are steel, and the fenders needed a special deep-draw stamping process, 18 inches deep at the front and 10 at the rear. The Chevrolet HHR later borrowed from the same Advance Design trucks.
For 2003 and 2004, the SSR used a 5.3-liter Vortec V8 with 300 hp and 331 lb-ft. For 2005 GM switched to the 6.0-liter LS2 V8, rated at 390 hp and 405 lb-ft, and added an optional six-speed Tremec T-56 manual alongside the four-speed automatic. For 2006 output rose to 395 hp with the automatic and 400 hp with the manual. A specially prepared SSR paced the Indianapolis 500 on May 25, 2003.
Even so, it sold below expectations. In December 2003, with a 301-day supply on hand, GM announced five weeks of layoffs at the Lansing Craft Center, the Michigan plant that built it. In November 2005 GM said the Craft Center, where about 400 workers built the SSR, would close in mid-2006. The last SSR, a one-off black-on-silver truck, was built on March 17, 2006.