They were so much fun to drive. We bought an 06 back then as an R&D car and I got to drive it pretty regularly. The 6.1 was a beast, especially for the time. Would light the tires up from any roll under 40 MPH, tons of fun.
FWIW these are MUST tune cars. The factory torque management is...
Dang, 03 is going back. Predates me at 17+ years. I miss Pete, hear from him occasionally. I can imagine some of the guys doing what you described, it was a different world back then!
Few more I missed...
Early Z, not sure of year, engineer drives it:
CTS-VSport, engineer owed:
Early MCSS with an M90 slapped on:
16 JK R&D Jeep:
And, someone set up a photo op for me, 22 Ram 5.7 (white, project manager), 23 Ram 5.7 (Black, R&D truck), 23 TRX (engineering manager) :
These days we work for Holley, and we are almost always hiring. We're located all over the country (TX, KY, CA, UT, FL, AL, SC and more). Looks like 18 openings across locations currently...
He acquired a super high mile but clean C6, and offered it up for trade. The Apache came along and he jumped on it. 5.3 with a healthy cam, Holley hi-ram, longtubes, etc.
It runs really well and rides great on a (non lowered) S10 chassis. Fun truck, and is for sale or trade currently.
I did this a couple yeas ago, here:
https://www.svtperformance.com/threads/whats-in-your-parking-lot-at-work.1183098/
Lots of changes since then. Here's a look at some of the stuff that we use for R&D or that people drive here daily:
58 Apache, 5.3 LS, Holley EFI, on an S10 chassis:
Clean...
I just fail to agree that they don't care about power. Nothing cheap about a V12, anywhere, but they still added twin turbos to it. Why? because nobody cared about more power? LOL.