In the late 80s, GM actually worked on a few really interesting cars, but none would stand out from the crowd quite like their red-hot GMC Syclone pick-up and equally good Typhoon SUV.
Born out of the 80s, they only started selling them in 1991 and for that year at least, GMC had the quickest production car in existence, in the strange form of a pick-up truck. Able to hustle from 0-60 in under 5 seconds, it ate the super-cars for breakfast and quickly gained cult car status, although the Typhoon was marginally slower it didn’t have any trouble seeing off a few super-cars either.
10 Syclone With An “S”
If you know nothing about these trucks, then you may think this is another good example of bad spelling happening to good people.
It was actually due to the fact that they would have had some trouble with Mercury, who already owned the Cyclone name (pictured above).
9 Fragile Turbos
Mitsubishi can get a bit of stick for this one, nothing made in the early 90s with a turbo was perfect, but these were not the only turbos they made that had a propensity to explode.
If they did go bang, then sadly a lot of the engine would follow it down the hole too, making it a very expensive pain point. Having said that, if you limit the boost and take good care of them, they will last as long as any other turbo made back then.
8 Can Cost As Much As A New Truck
Depending on which perspective you take here, this may or may not be a bad thing at all. If you're looking for a fun daily, it might not be your first choice.
On the other hand, in a few years, these trucks will only get rarer, it is also likely that considering how people have taken to performance SUV’s and pick-up trucks in recent times their value will increase as long as they in good, original shape.
7 Unique Special Edition Syclones
They made ten Marlboro Syclones that were customized by the American Sunroof Company, all of which were rather obviously Marlboro Red and were equipped with Boyd Coddington wheels, Recaro seats, Momo Sports steering wheel, and the unusually bold Targa top.
The Indy Syclone was an unofficial pace car at the 1992 Indianapolis 500. Three of these pace cars were built, but only one got the actual paint scheme, the other two were just wrapped.
6 They Don’t Do Off-Road
They might be the only trucks that come with this warning sticker: Off-road operation could result in serious damage to chassis and drivetrain.
Considering how normal it has become for companies to produce high-performance trucks, this warning will make most of us future folk chuckle, then at some point take it off-road anyway.
5 Low Production Numbers
Sales were not great, all things considered, it was always going to be a novelty, but it still comes as a surprise that less than 3000 Syclones and only around 4700 typhoons made it off the production line.
A key factor here will be the cost. In 90s money, the Syclone set you back $26,000, double the S-10 Chevy it shares a platform with, and the Typhoon was almost $30,000. Another factor is that they plainly beat the trend by more than a decade.
4 A Parts Bin Special
If you looked at all the premium features, you would be forgiven for thinking a lot of the kit on these trucks was bespoke, not really the case.
It stole the AWD system from a Chevy Astro, of all vehicles, it also got its boost gauge from the Pontiac Sunbird and of course that incredible 280 horsepower turbo V6 that just didn’t have a home up until they slotted into these unlikely candidates.
3 Not Actually Built By GM
In true corporate fashion, they outsourced this project. Likely for the better, if it stayed under the GM roof the plug might well have been pulled.
Built by Production Automotive Services, they were allowed to make them as quick as they saw fit. In the end, the vehicles were mind-bendingly quick (not fast, just quick), quicker, in fact, than a Corvette. We're sure that went down well.
2 Syclone Is Quicker
Not by much, but the weight factor obviously comes into play here, both of them have the drag coefficient of a brick, so we're pretty sure that had nothing to do with it.
A blistering 0-60 time of 4.9 seconds made it faster than anything made in 1991, faster than Ferraris, faster than super-cars, faster than everything! The Typhoon was right up there though, at 5.3 seconds it was the fastest SUV by quite some distance.
1 Typhoon Is Better
Neither of these vehicles are very practical, neither have a tow rating at all (literally 0 pounds) and neither can go off-road even though they have AWD.
What gives the Typhoon the edge is the comical 500-pound load capacity the Syclone has, not that that fact makes it any less awesome, it just makes it pretty useless as a functional pick-up. At least the Typhoon is still a functional, comfortable SUV.