Yahoo News Ferrari-Beating 1991 GMC Syclone Pickup For Sale on Bring a Trailer
With a turbocharged V-6 and all-wheel-drive, this compact pickup truck was one of the quickest vehicles around in its day.
This example has just 10,000 miles on its odometer.
Part of the GMC Syclone's claim to fame was beating a Ferrari 348 in a drag race in the September 1991 issue of Car and Driver.
In the oeuvre of Car and Driver driver emeritus Patrick Bedard, the opener to this classic shootout between a Ferrari 348 and a hopped-up little pickup truck stands among the best. Adios, hairhat indeed. When published in 1991, the idea that a pickup could outrun a hairpiece in a Ferrari was hot stuff, the Fast and Furious "Smoke him" scene for the 1990s. Well here's your chance to relive the action.
This 1991 GMC Syclone up for sale on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos) is one of 2995 sold for the model year. With just one owner from new until last year, it's in stunning condition and has just 10,000 miles on the odometer.
The Syclone's development process is tied directly to one of the coolest cars of the 1980s: the Buick Grand National. With the Grand National discontinued in 1987, some Buick engineers stuffed its 3.8-liter turbocharged V-6 into a Chevy S-10 compact pickup as a proof-of-concept muscle truck. Chevy wasn't interested. GMC was, but didn't want a Buick engine.
Instead, a turbocharged version of the Sonoma's 4.3-liter V-6 was developed. Construction was outsourced to Production Automotive Services, who had built the 1989 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am (there's that Buick turbo-six again), and the truck arrived in dealerships in 1990 as the fastest factory pickup truck in the world.
The turbocharged 4.3-liter V-6 makes a heady-for-the-time 280 horsepower and a stout 350 pound-feet of torque, pumped through a four-speed automatic transmission. With full-time, rear-biased all-wheel drive (taken from the Chevy Astro van, of all things) and a limited-slip rear axle, the Syclone gripped and ripped its way to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds and on to an as-tested 14.1 seconds in the quarter-mile. It could be even quicker when temperatures dropped.
Lowered on a sport-tuned suspension with factory aerodynamics and fat BFGoodrich tires on 16-inch wheels, the Syclone is one tough-looking little truck. This example is in great condition both inside and out and has had a recent service including brake work front and rear.
If you remember reading Bedard's piece back in the day and swearing that one day you'd park a Ferrari-slaying GMC in your driveway, now's the time. The Syclone is one of the baddest pickup trucks ever made.
The auction ends on Wednesday, December 11.
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