SILVERBACK MAX

BY JACOB WHITE

It wasn’t that long ago when GDP Tuning was just an upand- coming performance shop run by a couple of brothers with a love for everything diesel and the knowledge of trucks and what it took to make them really run. When those two guys left their previous jobs with a couple of big name performance shops to branch off on their own, they dreamed of making something for themselves — a new name and a product line that would set themselves apart. With plenty of late nights, a whole lot of stress, and no fear of jumping head _ rst into the deep end of the pool, Gorilla Diesel Performance (GDP) exploded on to the diesel performance scene. Their custom tuning for the late model Power Stroke, Duramax, and Cummins trucks took the market by storm. With a knack for tweaking the ECMs and TCMs to squeeze out every ounce of power potential, while keeping great street manners, GDP Tuning quickly became household name and is offered by some of the best performance shops in the country. As their popularity continued to grow throughout the aftermarket, it came time for them to jump into the arena with the big boys and get a truck put together for display at the 2018 SEMA Show and to parade around the country at diesel events like the Diesel Performance Expo and Northwest Dyno Circuit.

With very little time on their hands to build something in-house without disrupting the day-to-day business of building and selling custom tuning through the EZ Lynk and EFI Live software, the guys at GDP Tuning reached out to their close friends at Custom Auto of Idaho Falls, Idaho, to help them get a rolling billboard put together to build awareness to the GDP name. After some brainstorming and a trip to the GM dealer, this ’17 3500 Chevrolet Silverado was dropped off at Custom Auto to receive the complete show truck package. While the truck was intentionally purpose built to sit inside show booths at expos and diesel events, GDP requested the truck maintain it’s smooth ride and excellent driving manners. Trailering it from show to show wasn’t always going to be an option, so good highway manners were key.