High-performance trucks are anything but unusual nowadays but things were quite different a few decades ago. Because carmakers didn't start taking fast haulers seriously until the 1990s.
Sure, Dodge took the plunge much earlier with the Li'l Red Express, which became America's fastest production vehicle in 1978 thanks to a loophole. The same company dropped a 365-horsepower V8 in a D-100 in 1964. But none of these trucks got as much publicity as the GMC Syclone.
Introduced in 1991 as a high-performance version of the GMC Sonoma, the Syclone didn't get a big V8. GM went with a 4.3-liter V6 instead, but the turbocharger attached to it took output to 280 horsepower and 350 pound-feet (475 Nm) of torque. Yes, it may not sound like a lot when compared to the modern Ram 1500 TRX, but it was nothing to sneeze at back in the day.
We're looking at an era when the Ford Mustang GT was good for 205 horsepower, while the beefed-up SVT Cobra came with only 235 horses on tap. But whether or not the Syclone was the most powerful vehicle at the time doesn't because. Because we know for a fact that it was the quickest production truck when it arrived in showrooms.
On top of that, it was quicker than many sports cars of the day in a straight line. The Syclone needed only 4.3 seconds to hit 60 mph from a standing start and just 13.4 clicks to run the quarter-mile. And these benchmarks enabled the truck to beat a V8-powered Ferrari 348 ts in a now-infamous test put together by "Car and Driver."
Come 2023, and the GMC Syclone is a full-blown collectible, despite being only a little over 30 years old. Of course, this status is also further enabled by the fact that GMC didn't make too many of them. Specifically, production included only 2,998 units, three of which were sold during the 1992 model year. But even so, some Syclone examples aren't getting the love they deserve.
The truck you see here was left to collect dust for more than 10 years in an old shop in Puyallup, Washington. Luckily, the owner decided to sell it and the Syclone ended up with a professional car detailer. And not only he brought it back to life with proper cleaning inside and out, but he also documented the entire process.
Granted, we don't get to see the truck running and driving, which means it may need some work under the hood, but this Syclone is probably just a few tweaks away from being fully able to embarrass early 1990s Ferraris again. Hit the play button below to see it spring back to life.
Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer. Full profile
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