1991 GMC Syclone

The Story

In 1991 GMC built a pickup truck that could embarrass a Ferrari at a stoplight, and it did exactly that in a now-legendary magazine test. The GMC Syclone was an all-black compact hauler hiding a turbocharged secret, and it rewrote the rules of what a truck was allowed to do.

The trick was a 4.3-litre V6 fed by a Mitsubishi turbocharger and intercooler, good for 280 horsepower and a thumping 350 lb-ft of torque. GMC then added a BorgWarner all-wheel-drive system that split power 35 front, 65 rear, plus four-wheel anti-lock brakes. The combination launched the little truck to sixty in well under five seconds.

Car and Driver pitted a Syclone against a Ferrari 348ts and watched the truck win the drag race outright. It was a David-and-Goliath result that delighted enthusiasts and baffled purists, and it made the Syclone an instant icon of early-nineties excess and ingenuity.

Only 2,995 were built, every one of them black, and that scarcity has made the Syclone a sought-after collectible. Good examples now command around thirty thousand dollars and climbing. For truck lovers of a certain age, it remains the ultimate sleeper, proof that GMC once built a pickup with the heart of a supercar.