Kymera: A Cummins-Powered Colorado Unlike Anything Else

• February 22, 2017
• Story By
  Ali Mansour

Grabbing your attention in the fast-paced “what’s next” society is especially challenging. It’s something companies big and small battle with. Creativity is king in the automotive aftermarket, because sometimes, a quality product just isn’t enough to give your brand the buzz you’re looking for.

Enter Fab Fours. CEO Greg Higgs is always looking for ways to push the envelope. And for the 2016 SEMA Show, Higgs did just that with the company’s 2015 Chevy Colorado. It’s called "Kymera," which is a derivative of the fable creature Chimera from Greek Mythology. This mythical lion-goat-snake smashup might not make much sense at first, but once you dive into the crazy hodgepodge of killer parts on this one-of-a-kind pickup, it all starts to come together.

To get a closer look at what’s undoubtedly the most modified Colorado you’ll come across, we took a drive to the Fab Fours headquarters in Lancaster, South Carolina. As you can see in the video above, we got to spend a little time with the beast. Here, we’ll delve into just what makes this pickup such a show stopper.

While the new Chevy Colorado is available with a diesel engine, it’s a fraction of the size of the 360ci Cummins turbodiesel that was transplanted here. Built by BD Diesel, the 5.9L 12-valve engine received a complete overall to the air and fuel system. Throwing fuel from the BD injection pump to high-flow injectors and lines, the truck is able to pump out an impressive 650 horsepower and 1,200 lb-ft of torque.

To compensate for the heavy fuel mixture, BD added one of its twin-turbo systems designed specifically for the 6BTA diesel engine. This setup uses a low pressure turbo with a 66 mm compressor wheel and 80 mm turbine wheel, while the high-pressure turbo has a 58 mm compressor wheel and 65 mm turbine wheel.

Attached to the Cummins engine is a 47HR automatic from BD Diesel. It spins a gear-driven Atlas II transfer case with a 3.8:1 low range.

One of the many challenges of the mid-engine truck were the center-mount AxleTech 4000 differentials. This requires the truck to run a pretty extreme driveline angle out back. To compensate for this, Fab Fours is currently using double-cardan joints at each end of the driveshaft.

Plucked from an MRAP, the AxleTech steering axles are some of the toughest military take-out axles you can find. Fit with air-powered selectable lockers and a final drive ratio of 5.65:1, they should handle anything this truck can throw at them. To handle the steering duties, double-ended hydraulic cylinders were mounted at each axle.

To fit such an extreme truck, Fab Fours went with an extreme set of treads from Nitto Tire. The 40x15.50R20 Mud Grappler is one of the tire company’s most aggressive off-road tires and an excellent choice to get the tremendous power to the ground.

To help increase grip and retain the tire to the wheel, a custom set of 20-inch beadlock wheels were fabricated. These one-off 10-bolt wheels use a type of composites insert that “locks” both inner and outer beads of the tire when the two-piece wheel is bolted together.

Fab Fours wanted to make sure that the truck’s suspension would not be a limiting factor, so they installed Fox 3.5 coilovers and 4.4 bypass shocks at each corner. These 18-inch travel terrain absorbers are aided by Fox 2.0 bump stops.

To keep the axles centered, the truck uses a double-triangulated four-link front and rear. This setup negates the need for a track bar, which ultimately allowed them to keep the truck lower.

With so many large components, it’s easy to overlook some of the ingenious minute details on the rigs. Small but important items such as the custom cantilever brake setup that pushes the horizontally mounted master cylinder showed that plenty of thought and planning went into the 10-month-long build.

Where the engine would typically reside you’ll find a 15-gallon RCI fuel cell, dual Odyssey batteries, and a Be Cool radiator. The handcrafted coilover tower is anther incredibly well throughout detail as it extends ever-so-slightly through the Colorado’s hood.

If you remember Fab Fours "Legend 2.Woah" Jeep, you may recall it sporting a Mohawk. This Mohawk theme made it over to Kymera as well. While the truck is absolutely over-the-top, great strides were made to keep the pickup looking like a Colorado. This included building panels to finish out the custom bed structure to keep the body lines of the midsized pickup intact.

Inside, the Colorado remains extremely spacious. It even retains the niceties of factory navigation, heated Katzkin leather seats and power windows! Since the massive engine found its way into the cab for a better weight balance, a custom engine cover and center console had to be fabricated. This piece of handcrafted sheetmetal is one of our favorite features on the rig.

To help achieve the low lift, big tire look, the roof of the Colorado was chopped 4 inches. This may not seem like much, but it was a tremendous undertaking. The seamless conversion also helps exaggerated the 130-inch wheelbase nicely.

Hard Facts

Check out more photos in the gallery below.