Badass Bowties: Chevrolet Mulls RS and SS Versions of Tahoe

March 10, 2014 at 1:19 pm by Steve Siler | Photography by Steve Siler and the Manufacturer

At the 2013 SEMA show, Chevrolet stoked our inner badass (we’re so not badass on the outside) with the murdered-out Tahoe Black concept, which is technically more of a stormy monochromatic gray than true black, yet looks about as “Day-um, bitches!” as a Tahoe can get, with a slammed suspension, dark-painted 22-inch GM accessory wheels, smoked headlight and taillight lenses, a body kit, and a unique black-leather interior. Turns out, the Tahoe Black may be more than just a concept, and perhaps a preview of things to come from the Tahoe line.

This we determined after a few conversations with Chevy Tahoe engineers and product managers at a recent first drive event of the 2015 Chevy Tahoe and Suburban in Lake Tahoe, California.

No one at Chevy would outright confirm a future performance variant of the Tahoe, but Chevy spokesman Michael Albano did say that they’re looking at “developing variants of existing products that appeal to consumers and build on our performance heritage.” The letters RS were brought up (by one of the Chevy people, not us) as a possible trim level that could wear body mods like those modeled by the Tahoe Black, but without any power upgrades to the Tahoe’s standard 5.3-liter V-8, which admittedly is no slouch with 355 horsepower and 385 lb-ft of torque. Any SS model, of course, would have to have more grunt under the hood. Conveniently, the GMC Yukon already uses a more powerful mill in its high-zoot Denali trim level: a 6.2-liter V-8 that churns out 420 horses and 460 lb-ft of torque.

“You can speculate all you want about the engines we have on the ‘shelves’ and that alone gets the imagination going,” said Albano. We will, we did, and we want.