Jay Leno Shows off His 1991 GMC Syclone

Written by Paul Strauss | July 28, 2015

I don’t get to drive a whole lot of pickup trucks, but if there’s one truck that I’ve always wanted to get behind the wheel of, it’s the GMC Syclone. This insane pickup truck was something unlike any other truck before or after it.

The limited-edition 2-seat compact truck was powered by a 4.3-liter, turbocharged V6 that pushed out north of 280 hp and 350 lb-ft. of torque to an all-wheel drive system. It could do 0-to-60 in a little more than 4 seconds. In other words, it was a sports car in pickup truck clothes. In fact, the Syclone was the fastest accelerating vehicle you could buy in America at the time. Not that 1991 was a great year for cars.

Sure, it had its quirks – like a 63/37 front-to-rear weight distribution, terrible aerodynamics, a live rear axle, and was only rated at 500 pounds of cargo capacity. It also had an automatic transmission – not a manual, and a factory-limited speed of 126 mph.

Jay Leno bought one of these trucks back when it first came out, and showed it off in the latest episode of his show (skip to about 5:30 to see it in action.) It looks like it really lives up to the hype – though I’d put sports exhaust on mine if I had one. Check it out for yourself, then add “Syclone” to your eBay watch list so you can buy one for yourself some day.

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