1991 GMC Syclone Pickup Truck - Jay Leno's Garage

another episode of Jay Leno's Garage today we're going to be talking about my 1991 cyclone pickup I bought this brand new back in 1991 a limited production vehicle they only built three thought well they built two hundred and twenty-nine hundred nine hundred ninety eight of these and there's a one year only just 1991 they built three in 1992 but the reason I got it was this faster than a Ferrari and you go right there look at that but this little pickup truck was the fastest accelerating vehicle you could buy in 1991 faster than Corvette bastard them Ferrari 348 faster than to test the Rossa it's hard to believe this has a v6 engine it's turbocharged a lot of people think it's the engine out of the Buick Grand National that was 3.8 liter this is 4.3 this is a vortex motor the Grand National had and this has a liquid cooled intercooler the Grand National had air intercooler so this was quite a bit faster and with four-wheel drive it hooked up pretty quick but that shows you how things were back in 1991 that a pickup truck was the fastest accelerating vehicle you could buy 0 to 60 and I think 4.6 4.2 give or take whatever it is they were 280 horsepower from the factory everyone seems to think it was closer to 330 horsepower but for insurance reasons they build it at 280 much like they did with the early Hemis that were really two for 25 they're actually quite a bit more than that it's kind of interesting vehicle because it's too light for heavy work and too heavy for light work so it's more like a sports car pickup truck they don't recommend you carry more than 500 pounds in the bed you've only got 37 percent of your weight over the rear wheel of the car over the rear of the car you've got just brakes in front drums and back you really need this and back because the front the the distant all the work up in front with only 37% of the weight back here they didn't work very hard anyway obviously automatic mission kind of nineties velour kind of seats these sold for about 25 26 thousand dollars doesn't sound like much today but 1991 that was that was quite a bit of money and I as I said they only built two thousand nine hundred ninety eight of these but it's amazing how many cars I've surprised at stoplights with this thing because that's I say except four-wheel drive it just hooks right up in fact there's a I read about guys that took modified these and run high nine seconds on the street with them so it's it's pretty amazing it was it's not really a truck it's more like a truck sports car if you think of it as sports we can carry a ton of stuff in the back I would carry mostly as I said maybe bags of feathers because you can't really put a lot of weight back there and it has air conditioning and everything like that it's not it's not a strip of any sense they also sold this as the typhoon now the typhoon was basically a cyclone but with what they call the Jimmy body on it you know four seats the whole deal you know that was that was the more practical one so they sold Oh many five ten thousand though quite a few of those but this was the one that was lighter this is about 3,500 pounds the typhoon was about 37 3800 pounds this of course was just a two-seater the typhoon could seat four or five and a pinch if you had to as you see big beefy tires on it the wheels kind of mimic the Corvette wheels of the period coefficient of drag is like something but it's just a brick it's just a brick going through the air this is not particularly aerodynamic at all but a let's take a look inside the vehicle you got electric windows electric door locks still gotta adjust your mera by hand it's a little tight in here but not bad I mean actually for the period it was pretty good can't complain about that very plasticky but most American cars were back in 91 am/fm radio premium sound system and all that boost gauge all that kind of stuff but they have a nice sound to him you got abs and all that kind of stuff anti-lock brakes a lot of this furry stuff all over the place I never quite understand GM must have had a run on someone wants to give him a bunch of fur and they just need to put it all in all these cars this vehicle not intended for off-road use a lot of guys went racing with these things and they were pretty quick and I think this one's a little quicker than stock because it has a few factory tricks on it but I put the line of bedliner in it and a few other things and this is an option you could get locks up just like that seal the bed inside I've had a lot of fun with this thing as I said it was my everyday car for years and years so it got a little dented of lady bumped me in the back here pushed that bumper in a little bit I didn't doing about it fine with me so let's see how she does I say I've had this thing now over 20 years and it's pretty bulletproof all I've done really it just changed your oil on it and you know do brake pads things like that but it's been pretty reliable you know the Buick Grand National got all the publicity but I think this is actually faster these were built down in Shreveport Louisiana I love that part of the country it's a lot of fun when you go down there and a company I think PSA something like that did the actually built them for GM and then they went out of business and that's why they didn't build anymore plus the typhoon was really more practical you could carry more people in it there's no airbag this is the last I guess airbag came in about what 95 96 that was mandatory so consequently it's a fairly light vehicle and with the 4-wheel Drive she hooks up very nicely and it's a good-looking truck most people have no idea what it is and they're so surprised when you blow their doors off now although this was faster than a Ferrari you could buy an America that was an acceleration not top speed these were limited or govern to 126 miles an hour I think Ferrari at a top speed of 166 back then but it shows you what a difference 20 years can make on in 66 was just considered pretty crazy back in the day now of course supercars go well over 200 miles an hour but the 90s the late 80s early 90s these were not a good time for for fast cars in fact my Bentley Turbo R which is 189 that was the fastest four-door sedan you could buy in America and this was the fastest truck you could buy in America you see a theme here we like the fast stuff but imagine going into a Chevy dealer and 91 ago what's the fastest thing you got the Corvette no the little truck over there for the v6 really now this particular truck was a testbed for GM and they did a few performance modifications on it had different wheels on it when I got a jam I put the stock wheels back on it I think it's got a little more horsepower than stock I had the president of General Motors here at the garage recently he noticed some markings on he says hey how did you get that ago before your time the fun thing about this little pickup is how compact it is most pickup trucks especially now we're just huge things Ford f250 s f-150s God they're enormous then the big Chevy's where is this thing it's I guess for truck is the best term and it handles okay there's only so much you can do with a live axle redline in this motor is not very high is about 4700 rpm and that's where it shifts you can get a little bit more out of it if you want but it doesn't do you that much good you know this trucks a classic example I've always said it the real fun with most cars is between 20 and 120 miles an hour once you get over 120 especially in public roads it gets crazy but the real fun is that acceleration between 20 and maybe 70 or 75 and that's why this one's got some real punch and it does it all fairly quietly and discreetly you know you got these big tires on it so there's not a lot of tire squeal you just kind of torque brake it a little bit bring the revs up and drop the hammer in she goes All Things Considered it's a great vehicle to drive you know you set up hi nice big windshield a pillows aren't too thick there's not a lot of blind spots good Maris and it's uh it's fun think it down to the age-old question will it do a Burnout no not really because of these big tides and four-wheel drive you really can but you can blow off a Ferrari and that should be good enough for anybody and we'll see next week

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,246,342

Rating: 4.9260869 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, GMC, Syclone, 1991, Black

Id: VRBd6g6CdDs

Length: 10min 55sec (655 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2015