Toxic Performance

THE MIAMI HAMMER: AN UNUSUAL COLORADO Chevy  recently announced its new Colorado will be offered with a   Duramax  diesel. Not a 6.6L D-max, but a 2.8L 4-cylinder. Sure, that will still be cool and fuel efficient, but what if there was a 6.6L D-max-powered Colorado? Well, thanks to Enrique Gonzales of Miami, Florida, there is one. Enrique Gonzales of Miami, Florida, there is one. Enrique doesn’t like doing things the way everyone else does them; he likes doing things the way no one does them. The Puerto Rican-born Miami resident isn’t one to follow trends, and his business The Diesel Shop (TDS) and the work that it produces, reflects that. Enrique wasn’t always a diesel specialist. He worked in a Mustang performance shop in the 1990s, and even built some of the first 7-second Mustangs. By the early 2000s, he made the transition to being a tech in a diesel performance shop for a few years before venturing out on his own and forming TDS. He and his wife Arlette run the busi...

Since they say everything’s bigger in Texas, it’s no surprise that Texans like their trucks big, too. Jesus Zubia, who hails from the Lone Star State, is a fitting example, having owned a slew of lifted trucks. The latest is the 2015 GMC Denali shown here. More about all the mods in a moment, but first some background. Zubia has lots of brothers in arms, since Texas is the largest market for new pickups in the United States. More large pickups are purchased in Texas than the next three largest truck markets— California, Oklahoma, and Florida—combined. Zubia lives in Midland, Texas, named for being the midway point between Fort Worth and El Paso. Cattle and oil have figured prominently in the city’s history since its founding in 1881. And what’s a ranch hand or an oil worker without a pickup truck? RIDIN' HIGH: A LIFTED 2015 DENALI