click above for more high-res images of the ROUSH Silverado

It was a big enough shock last May when ROUSH announced that it would begin making performance parts for a select few General Motors' vehicles. Long associated with Fords, in particular the Mustang and F-150, ROUSH initially began offering just its Power Programmers and cold air intakes for GM products.

Then a rendering surfaced that showed a fully tuned Silverado with a ROUSH body kit and wheel package. Though the company admitted it was researching such a truck, it didn't admit much else. Now it doesn't have to, as we have pictorial proof that ROUSH may soon branch out beyond vehicles branded with a blue oval to offering full performance packages, including the ROUSHcharger supercharger, for 1997-and-up Chevy Silverados.

The spy shots you see here show a ROUSH-modified Silverado that's virtually identical to the rendering that leaked out. Beyond the bright color, we can see a new front bumper and lower apron with a deep chin spoiler, large-diameter dual exhausts out back, larger wheels wrapped in low-profile rubber and a new hood with a power dome. That dome no doubt hides a supercharged V8, probably the 6.0L Vortec MAX V8 that normally produces 367 hp and 375-lb/ft of torque, but should hit 500 hp and 500-lb/ft with the addition of a ROUSHcharger. ROUSH and Chevy? We know, it sounds weird to us too, but based on these spy shots, it looks like a good time.

[Photos: Brian Williams for Brenda Priddy & Co.]

Click image to enlarge

We have no information on this other than the image you see here, but pictures say a lot, and this one says that ROUSH is about to spread some of its performance pickup love over to General Motors in the form of the ROUSH Silverado. A poster at the CamaroZ28.com forum snuck a cameraphone shot of an official sketch and published it on the website. As you can see when you enlarge the photo, there's a pretty concise legal disclaimer at the bottom, and if we had to guess, someone is definitely going to get fired for this rather significant security breach. Either that, or ROUSH has deftly embraced viral marketing. Here's hoping for a blown 6.2L under that domed hood.

UPDATE: We have spoken to ROUSH, and they can only confirm that the Silverado depicted above is "a project that we are evaluating."

Thanks for the heads-up, Josh.

[Source: CamaroZ28.com via TheGMSource]