(car engine revving)
- Tubular!
Radical!
Bodacious!
These are just some of the words
that turtles with martial arts training use
to describe GMC's high performance compact truck and SUV.
Two boxy American sleepers,
so alluring even Jay Leno and Clint Eastwood
couldn't resist their fender flare power.
Conceived by Buick, shunned by Chevy
and brought to life by GMC;
this is everything you need to know
to get Up to Speed on the Syclone and Typhoon!
(upbeat music)
Making Up to Speed is a dream, but boy,
sometimes it can get tough.
And I couldn't do it without NOS Energy Drink
partnering with Donut Media and me, James Pumphery.
Now NOS Energy Drink has generously supplied the office
with refreshing ice-cold cans of NOS Energy,
which is great!
But it also creates some in-office competition
when it comes down to the last can.
(rock music)
I saw it first!
I'm getting thirstier again!
As the 1980s gave way to the 90s,
Americans were transitioning from acid wash jeans
to hammer pants, and yearning for more powerful,
impractical compact trucks.
There's the compact 1989 Shelby Dodge Dakota,
but that wasn't really all that fast.
Then, there was the full-size 1990 Chevy 454 SS
which sounded great, but was way too big
and still not that fast.
(454 SS engine revving)
Luckily, just a few years earlier,
Buick engineers had been playing Frankenstein games
with the Chevy S10 and unknowingly gave birth
to the fastest truck and SUV
of a select few people's dreams.
Much like Raghav, the Buick engineers
were kinda the bad boys of General Motors.
They developed the highly-coveted Grand National
and were asked to help Pontiac put the 'oomph'
in the 230th Anniversary Trans Am,
but the Grand National was retired by 1987
and the Trans Am was just, like, bleh...
So the Buick engineers decided to make a super truck!
They took the 3.8 liter V6 engine
from the Grand National and crammed it
into a little S10 engine bay.
Then they pitched the souped-up compact truck
to the big wigs and small toupees of Buick,
but those guys were like,
"Nah."
So they were disappointed.
The engineers thought they'd pitch the truck to Chevy,
since that was what the prototype was built on
but the bow tie boys weren't interested either!
"Nah."
But then someone from GMC happened to walk by the truck
and asked, "Hey, what're you doing with that little truck,
don't 'ya know?"
The first thing on the docket
was to come up with a cool name.
GMC needed a moniker that properly conveyed just how fast
and devastating this tiny truck was gonna be.
Then one day, looking out the window, inspiration struck.
"Hey, we gotta get down to the basement.
"There's a freaking cyclone outside."
"Well, bring your notebook to the basement,
'cause I think that's what we're gonna call
that new little truck we're developing!"
After that 100% accurate encounter,
that I didn't take any artistic liberties on at all,
they decided to name the new truck--
- [Spokesperson] The Limited Edition Syclone.
It's been called the "ultimate specialty truck".
- But spelled with an 's' instead of a 'c',
because it's based on the S10 Sonoma.
Also, Mercury had trademarked Cyclone with a 'c'...
So.
With the perfect name,
with the perfect spelling picked out,
it was time to develop an new power plan.
The 3.8 liter Buick V6 in the prototype was awesome
but required a ton of modification
in order to fit under the S10's hood.
So, GMC decided to stick with the truck's original 4.3 liter
Vortec V6.
But the base engine only made 168 horsepowers
and 235 torques, which wasn't even nearly enough
to give real car enthusiasts that butt pucker.
To turn up the wick,
engineers swapped out a few basic components
and developed them with high-performance versions.
They got new pistons, main caps, head gaskets,
intake and exhaust manifolds, a better fuel system,
and a bigger throttle body
from the Corvette's 5.7 liter small block.
Then came the real source of more power, baby.
Mitsubishi!
TD06 Turbocharger with a Garrett intercooler.
(engine revving)
The new and improved power plan was good
for 280 horsepowers
and 350 twerks!
The engine was paired
with a four-speed automatic transmission
and all-wheel drive from the GMC Safari,
AKA the Astro Van, which you can learn more about
in this video right here.
All right kids, let's go to hockey practice.
- Can we all stop at McDonald's?
- Yeah, I want some nuggets.
- Yeah, I wanna get a Big Mac.
- Yeah, we can get the McDonald's.
- Yay!
Chunky butts on three!
One, two, three--
Chunky Butts! - Chunky butts!
The all-wheel drive system
sent 35% of the power to the front
and 65% to the back, where it hooked up
to low-profile 245/50 performance tires
on 16 inch alloyed wheels.
This gave the truck a super sticky launch
from a standstill and the ability to lay down
a blistering zero to 60 time of 4 1/2 seconds.
In a freaking truck!
In the early freaking (belching) 90s!
(chuckling)
(engine revving)
In fact, "Car and Driver" raced it
against a Ferrari 348 TS
and the Syclone smoked it in the quarter mile.
Even crazier than that,
it held the title of "Fastest Accelerating Vehicle"
at the time.
That's insane considering a 348 was $122,000
and a Syclone was only $25,000.
Aside from straight-line speed,
the Syclone was much less Ferarri-like.
There was no chassis engineering.
63% of the truck's weight sat over the front tires.
It had a live rear axle and cornered like a newborn giraffe,
if we're being honest.
The suspension was basically cut springs
so you couldn't even think about off-roading it,
and towing with it was "not recommended".
It had drum brakes in the rear
and it had the drag coefficient of a freaking barn.
You had to like black
because that's the only color it came in.
Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson, hi dad,
said the interior had--
- While although the interior
has about as much style as the gentleman's lavatories
at the Motorway Service Station--
- Despite its flaws, GMC sold just shy of 3000 in the U.S.,
including one to my, honestly, probably best friend,
Jay leno, who used it as his daily for years.
GMC knew they had something good in the Syclone
but they wanted something great!
So they unleashed a second tropical storm
on the automotive market; the Typhoon!
(engine revving)
This two-door SUV was the El Nino of compact SUVs.
It was almost identical to the Syclone,
only it was in a GMC Jimmy body.
For about four grand more, you could now seat four people,
have leather-clad seats, and beat a C4 ZR1 in a drag race.
Unlike its truck brother,
you could choose from an aray of colors.
Apple Red, Bright Teal, Aspen Blue;
which color of Typhoon is right for you?
Fans started calling the truck-SUV duo "SYTYs".
The more practical of the SYTYs
was also the more popular one.
Bob Seger bought one;
JFK Junior and Dirty Harry himself, Clint Eastwood.
(engine revving)
The Syclone was only sold in 1991
with the exception of three 1992 models.
The Typhoon enjoyed a whopping two years of sales,
that's almost twice as much,
in '92 and '93.
But it didn't sell much better
with just under 4700 produced.
Why did GMC quit making such awesome vehicles?
Mainly because the company in charge of modifying the S10s
went out of business and the Mustang and Camaro
were way cheaper, sportier choices
than the pricey super truck sleepers.
(engine revving)
But even though the Syclone had a brief run,
there was enough time to make two limited special editions.
There were three indie Syclone trucks with stickers
used at the 1992 Indianapolis 500,
but the most notable was the Marlboro Syclone.
And it wasn't just an appearance package.
There were only ten made which had performance upgrades
like a performance chip, a BORLA stainless-steel exhaust,
and a Belltech suspension that lowered the truck.
That's all well and good,
but look at this freaking thing!
It's a Targa-topped truck in Hot Lick Red
with Recaro seats and Boyd Coddington wheels
and the only way you could get your hands on one
was to smoke pack after pack of cancer-causing,
Emphysema-inducing Marlboros to try and win it
in a contest.
That's like if Juul, today,
gave away Special Edition Subaru WRXs
to the guy who blew the biggest clouds.
It could happen!
While the SYTYs were short-lived,
they helped launch a new era in consumer truck development.
Production pickups went from being utilitarian
and off-road capable
to being street-only enthusiast vehicles.
Who can forget the Chevy S10 and Blazer Xtremes
or the Ford Lightening; the Dodge Ram SRT-10
with the freaking Viper engine?
You guys kidding me?
(tires squealing)
Not all truck enthusiasts care about practicality.
Some just wanna look cool and go fast.
I cannot stress this enough!
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are very real
but also not nice!
Do they fight Shredder?
Absolutely.
Are they nice?
No!
(laughing)