27. GMC Syclone
Back in the 1980s, GM experimented a lot with turbocharged engines, which was in sync with the current industry trends. But the most famous of them all was the Buick Grand National or Buick GNX. It featured a 3.8-liter turbocharged V6 engine with a fewer than five-second 0 to 60 mph time. With that kind of firepower, those black Buicks were terrorizing the drag strips and stop lights. But sadly, by the early ‘90s, the Buicks were gone, so those GM engineers were looking for a place to install that turbo hardware. Soon they made the decision was made to make a crazy sports truck out of a plebian Chevrolet S10, a compact pickup which came with diminutive four-cylinder power. This is how the GMC Syclone was born.
GM took an ordinary S10 body shell, installed a 4.3-liter V6 with a turbocharger, good for 280 HP, special four-speed automatic sourced from a Corvette, and performance-based all-wheel drive. The power figures don’t sound much these days, but the Syclone was able to sprint to 60 mph in just 5.3 seconds which made it faster than contemporary Ferraris. The key was lightweight, with small dimensions and lots of torque from that turbocharged engine. Unfortunately, the price was significantly higher than the regular model, so they built less than 3,000, with most of them in the signature black color. The Syclone wasn’t the first performance truck, but it was the first turbocharged compact pickup they designed to win stoplight races, which made it quite unusual and unique.
