The GMC Syclone debuted, in concept form, at the New York auto show back in 1989. So it’s fitting that there’s a new Syclone on the block three decades later -- and even if the Specialty Vehicle Engineering take on the concept isn’t an official GMC product, the souped-up truck manages 455 hp from its supercharged V6 (the original turbocharged Syclone squeezed 280 hp from the same number of cylinders), and it more or less looks the part while doing so.

The Syclone (as well as its direct competitor, the Ford SVT Lightning) are odd ducks in this modern era, when a truck’s capability is measured by its towing capacity and off-road prowess. Today, a performance-tuned truck looks more like the dune-bashing Raptor than this low, mean GMC product. But the concept is a fundamentally sound one: Take a simple vehicle and cram a big motor under the hood -- i.e., build a hot rod.

The result was a 4.9-second-to-60-mph truck that was yours for just $25,500 (to start). Those were supercar-slaying numbers at the time, which made it easy to overlook, for example, the low-rent interior. “In sum,” we wrote at the time, “the Syclone is a very exciting toy that offers some serious entertainment and a tool that can get down to some serious -- if limited -- business.”

Read on for more of our impressions, thoughts from GMC Syclone owners (both positive and negative), our analysis of the Syclone’s prospects as a future collectible and more!

Autoweek September 16, 1991 -- GMC Syclone drive review and autofile

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