Spend some time in the world of collector cars, and you’ll see some outrageous valuations. Beyond eight-figure Ferraris and seven-figure exotics, sometimes more normal models bring proper supercar money, and this sort of thing just happened again. A 32-year-old GMC SUV recently sold on Bring A Trailer for more than the base price of a 2025 Porsche 911 Turbo, and while that’s wild, this isn’t just any old SUV.
Back in 1991, GMC and Production Automotive Services decided to build on the turbocharged V6 concept made legendary by the Buick Regal GNX, and developed a pickup truck that could keep up with a Corvette. Based on a GMC Sonoma, it featured a 4.3-liter V6 with a Mitsubishi TD06 turbocharger, a combination officially rated at 280 horsepower and 350 lb.-ft. of torque. Those were serious figures for the early ’90s, when the Corvette of the time made 245 horsepower.
Of course, turbo power wasn’t the only trick piece of tech on the table, because this pickup truck came with all-wheel-drive. A BorgWarner transfer case with a 35:65 front-to-rear torque split optimized traction off the line, while a four-speed automatic with a 2,100-rpm torque converter stall completed the trifecta of devastating acceleration.
Officially dubbed Syclone, this special pickup truck didn’t just stick to the rear bumper of the standard Corvette of the time, it laid waste to the Ferrari 348ts in Car And Driver instrumented testing. We’re talking about zero-to-60 mph in 5.3 seconds, enough to make the Syclone an instant legend. However, GMC wasn’t done there. See, the S-10 had a bedless brother called the Jimmy, so GMC took the Syclone powertrain and put it in a Jimmy, dubbing it Typhoon and creating the original super-SUV with one alteration — self-levelling rear air suspension for handling loads.
Some 33 years after the first model year of the Typhoon, this particular 1993 model year example crossed the Bring A Trailer virtual auction block and brought a hammer price of $226,000. That’s $25,805 more than a brand new Porsche 911 Turbo. So beyond the legend of the Typhoon, why did this particular one sell for so much, setting a new record in the process?
Well, spec definitely plays a role. Out of the 2,200 Typhoons built for 1993, only 77 were painted Apple Red with matching cladding, making it one of the rarer color combinations out there. Outside of factory color-test cars, only Garnet Red with grey cladding and Royal Blue with grey cladding are less common.
Plus, with only 688 miles on the clock and one previous owner, this example is pretty much factory fresh. It’s not the lowest-mile Typhoon to sell on Bring A Trailer, but it’s the lowest-mileage one in this color, and everything from the upholstery to the pedals look it. Sadly, this also means whoever buys this SUV can’t really drive it and keep its value at the same time, meaning it’s likely to spend the rest of its life largely in climate-controlled storage.
Still, someone needs to preserve at least one example for future reference, and if they get $226,000 worth of enjoyment out of it, this SUV might be worth it to the right buyer. I’d rather buy one that’s been driven for less than an eighth of the price, but that’s just because I find automotive enjoyment out on the open road.
Top graphic credit: Bring A Trailer
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I know it’s cool and rare and all that, but 1/4 of a million dollars? That’s insane. If I wanted a fast 90s SUV or pickup, I think I could put an LS in a nice $8,000 one and save myself about $200,000.
hopefully carmakers are paying attention. Honestly the new trailblazer platform would be amazing for a fast compact suv.
Remember how these and some Syclones got scrapped in the cash for clunkers program? I do.
They were desirable enough even then for that to have made no sense, but, yes, I do remember that
If I saw one of these on the street, I would barely turn my head. Ho hum.
Then you’re either very young, or you don’t know much about cars. These things are legit. I mean, they’re not $250k legit, but there are a lot of people out there, including me, who would love to have one.
It doesn’t look special at a quick glance on the street, it just looks like any other lowered Jimmy of which there are enough about to not be special.
So, both.
What made it special was the powertrain. This was a relatively normal-looking Jimmy that outran 911s. Back then, performance like that from an SUV was unheard of and it’s not even all that common today.
… in a straight line. That’s important to some.
Quite true, but that’s also true of all sorts of cars, especially from back then. A Mustang of the same year didn’t exactly corner with Miatas either.
I think what a lot of people miss about these trucks is that they were insane novelties. We used to call them comedy trucks. Their purpose was to smoke people off the line because back then, vans/trucks/suvs were slow and ungainly. Most vehicles like that did 0-60 in the 10 second neighborhood. To have one do it in just over 5 was funny as hell, especially when you were watching the face of the driver in the sports car you just smoked.
They didn’t need to corner well because no one bought them to go racing in. Truck racing was dumb. NASCAR didn’t even start their truck series until a year after the Typhoon went out of production and people thought it was weird when it first came out.
This was solely meant to be something that should have been slow but shoved you back in your seat when you hit the throttle.
Depending on what you drive, you probably wouldn’t have to turn your head as it would keep up with or beat a lot of cars today
Are these special compared to today’s vehicles, where everything is turbocharged and even the most appliance like of cars have aggressive styling and do zero to 60 in 5 seconds? No. They’re special because of their history.
Back then these were tire frying, Ferrari treeing hot rods with just enough paint and body dress to let you know they weren’t a run of the mill vehicle. Along with the Buick Grand National and the original SVT Lightning, these were bright spots in a dark, miserable era for the automotive industry.
The history and when they were produced and the crop of vehicles on offer at that time definitely make them special. Like you said versus cars today? Not so much. My Mazda3 hatchback runs around the same 0-60.
My uncle used to have a SVT Lightning and then a Focus. That truck was truly something fun, especially considering with what Ford started with
How can you get a quarter of a million dollars of enjoyment out of a car you can’t drive but still have significant upkeep because cars that aren’t driven cost more to maintain. And I think as the neovo riche tech bros aren’t into cars the collector car market is about to plateau if not tank.
Bring a Trailer has become more of a dick measuring contest than a real car enthusiast auction. It’s like that diamond app that came out when the iPhone was new – pay $1,000 for an app that puts a drawing of a diamond on your phone screen, just so you can show off that money means so little to you that you spent a grand on clipart.
Typhoons are awesome, but they’re not a quarter-mil awesome. And the buyer knows that, but what better way to show that you have fuck-you money than by saying fuck you to the entire enthusiast scene?
And remember that this was an auction so unless the person who paid a quarter mil just decided to throw that random number out there, there were at least 2 people with that kind of money who valued it at that
So for 30+ years this has been parked somewhere in a climate controlled setting. Interesting purchase choice.
Apart from money laundering purposes, why? And who is buying them?
Rich people. You know they exist, right?
it’s not a “them,” it’s a “this.” No one other than this rich asshole showoff is buying Typhoons for that much money. They usually go for between 20 and 30 grand. Which is still holy shit expensive for a 30+ year old vehicle that’s going to break every 5 seconds, but considering the rarity and specialness of these things, is a lot more understandable.
What in the bloody hell? This is totally, completely, AND absolutely insane. These are really cool and everything, but this has got to be the MOST bonkers sale I have EVER seen!
You haven’t seen many car auction results then, have you?
I have heard about a lot of them in articles on this site and others; this one just seems more bonkers than most
If you invested $10,000 on January 1, 1994 in the S&P 500 and reinvested the dividends, you would have $226,253.17.
I blame the oligarchy. People are looking to impress with new ways to spend their piles of money.
It is possible it’s a boomer who is raking in stock market gains while taking a social security check. They just want that nostalgic supercar they always admired.
This looks great in red, by the way.
The drug money doesn’t launder itself.
People use crypto for that now. Why bother going through BaT?
Like anything else it’s only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Bring-A-PileofMoneyYouNeedtoLaunder.
I can’t really think of another reason to own this truck at this price.
I remember when these were new and the Automotive press were all over them. The HP numbers were impressive for they day. Cars today just weigh too much for those numbers today.
Even today, 0-60 in 5.3 seconds in a SUV is pretty impressive. But back in 1991, a Mustang GT did the deed in 6 seconds. The Syclone and Typhoon were bad ass. But never worth what this thing sold for. Crazy.
On public roads, you’re lucky to get to 60 in a minute, because you can only accelerate as fast as the cars in front of you, and the cars in front of you are being driven by inattentive people playing with phones in their laps
Laps? Shit. Phones are why people have two hands – one for TikTok, the other for the steering wheel.* I was behind a guy with “Baby on Board” stickers, a car seat in the back, flipping through TikTok that went through an intersection never once looking up.
*Edit: unless you need to text something, in which case the steering wheel will be there when you’re done. Probably.
Bill Stephens loves these, I hope it wasn’t him who bought it.
I’ll never get these nearly-no-mile collectibles. Maybe if they were outstanding to look at, unique, or of high quality, there would be enough satisfaction in it sitting somewhere, but while these cars were cool, they’re not really lookers or well made and the value is in the continued non-driving, so why? A good driver could be bought for much cheaper.
I kind of think of the buyers of these type no mileage vehicles as statue collectors. These are simply animatronic statues at this point. I’m interested in cars, not statutes. If you won’t drive it, its no longer a car. So not for me.
Yeah, that’s why I’d sort of get it if it were a really good or interesting looking car, but it’s neither, so it’s being sold essentially as a statue—something with primarily aesthetic value—but this is very limited in that regard and requires a fair amount of indoor space and maintenance. I imagine one would want to show such purchases off, too, but who’s this going to impress? Pretty much any non-car person is just going to see some old compact truck they suspect they could find on CL for 4 figures and a car person will likely be, like, “So you paid how much? And you can’t drive it.” To almost anyone, the owner just seems like a fool with too much money and I also don’t imagine there’s much room for this to go up in value, certainly not against many other investments.
A lot of these high-dollar, low-mileage purchases are purely investments. Does anybody really understand the value investors put on NFTs, bitcoins, abstract art that a 3 year old could recreate, a bottle of vintage wine that will never be drunk, etc.?
Yep, money makes money.
Those kinds of things have value for about the same reason money (in a broad sense) does: belief or at least a general agreement of value. While this qualifies, there are far more interesting cars at that price to just look at or sit in that have a greater likelihood of appreciating or other investments that don’t take up much space or require maintenance. Are NFTs still a thing? Either way, they aren’t being talked about like they were. They were the most blatant scam of any of them, so not enough people bought into them, which is why people stopped believing in it.
Apparently, as a way of laundering money and/or making illegal political “donations.”
After Citizens United, there’s almost no such thing as an illegal political donation.
A fool and their money? Or just an oddball collector who is clearly very wealthy.
I mean it is neat and all and probably looks better than almost all of the Blazers and Jimmy’s and their pickup mates came from the factory looking. But as the centrepiece of your car collection (because that is what this is) I just ask why. I mean to each their own.
Also funny that the HP and torque are comparable to my wife’s Sorento and most other mid size family oriented current crossovers. The power gains across the board in all vehicles really stand out when you think this was king of the hill back then, now it is what can be found in driveways everywhere.
With todays technology imagine if the car companies went for fuel economy instead of horse power.
Hyundai marketed a $24,000 hatchback that got 60mpg and nobody bought it
I was thinking about across everyones range. And not a one off. but thanks for the pedantic correction. Feel bigger?
I’m just saying nobody really seems to care about fuel economy, but people are still enamored by the horsepower peeing race, so wishing for automakers to aggressively compete on the former instead of the latter is pointless, they’re following the demand
You mean like BEVs?
“A fool and their money? Or just an oddball collector who is clearly very wealthy.”
Two things can be true at the same time