2028 GMC Syclone Concept With ZR1 Power Is The Ferrari-Slaying Muscle Truck Comeback
In 1991, a $26,126 GMC pickup outran a $122,180 Ferrari 348ts down the quarter-mile, and gearheads still haven’t stopped talking about it. The truck was the GMC Syclone, a black, turbocharged Sonoma that left exotic-car owners questioning their life choices. GMC built 2,995 of them for 1991, plus three more for 1992, and then the name disappeared from the brand’s lineup for good.
Thirty-five years later, GMC still hasn’t given the Syclone a factory-built successor. So we imagined what that comeback could look like for 2028, and this HotCars exclusive concept is the result.
How A Turbocharged GMC Sonoma Outran A Ferrari 348ts
GMC teamed up with Production Automotive Services (PAS) to build the Syclone, the same company behind the 1989 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am. The Buick Grand National’s turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 wouldn’t fit under the Sonoma’s hood without major surgery, so PAS turned to the truck’s 4.3-liter Vortec V6 instead.
That engine got a Mitsubishi turbocharger, a water-to-air intercooler, and a modified 48 mm Corvette throttle body, good for 280 hp and 350 lb-ft. A 4L60 four-speed automatic and a BorgWarner all-wheel-drive system split the power 35/65 front to rear. It was also the first production truck with four-wheel anti-lock brakes, and every 1991 Syclone came painted black.
Car and Driver famously lined the Syclone up against a Ferrari 348ts, and the pickup ran the quarter-mile in 14.1 seconds to the Ferrari’s 14.5. It also stopped from 70 mph in 183 feet, 4 feet shorter than the Italian exotic.
GMC never built a factory successor, although tuner Specialty Vehicle Engineering built 100 Canyon-based Syclones in 2019 with a 455-hp supercharged V6.
The 2028 GMC Syclone ZR1 Concept Goes Full-Size And Stays All Black
GMC doesn’t sell a single-cab Canyon, so the 2028 GMC Syclone ZR1 Concept starts life as a regular single cab, short-bed pickup Sierra 1500. It’s a much bigger truck than the compact original, but it still wears black paint, because a Syclone in any other color just feels wrong.
Up front, a red GMC logo sits in the grille between C-shaped LED headlights, with a pair of scoops cut into the hood. A deep splitter shows off an exposed intercooler and lower fog lights. The whole truck sits slammed close to the pavement, just like the 1991 Syclone.
From the side, widened fender flares wrap around deep-dish turbine-style wheels with red centers and red brake calipers. Red “Syclone” script sits low on the doors, a callback to the original’s red lettering.
Out back, the tailgate wears another Syclone script and a “TWIN TURBO” badge, which hints at what’s under the hood. Quad exhaust tips poke out of a rear diffuser, framed by dark LED taillights.
The concept wears the current Sierra’s face rather than the redesigned 2027 truck’s. GMC hasn’t announced any plans to revive the Syclone, so think of this as a HotCars design study and not a preview of a real truck.
A 1,064-Hp Corvette ZR1 V8 Gives The Syclone Its Ferrari-Slaying Bite Back
The concept’s twin turbos belong to the Corvette ZR1’s 5.5-liter LT7, a flat-plane crank V8 that produces 1,064 hp at 7,000 rpm and 828 lb-ft at 6,000 rpm. That’s about 3.8 times the original Syclone’s output, from what GM calls the most powerful V8 an American automaker has ever built.
Ferrari’s SF90 Stradale, a plug-in hybrid supercar, makes 986 hp combined, so the LT7 beats it on V8 power alone. In the ZR1, this engine gets the car to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds. A full-size truck weighs far more than a Corvette, so the Syclone wouldn’t match that time, but it would carry the same Ferrari-humbling spirit as the original.
The ZR1’s eight-speed dual-clutch transmission is built for a mid-engine layout, so the concept would pair the LT7 with GM’s 10-speed automatic, the same gearbox used across the 2027 Sierra 1500 lineup. An all-wheel-drive transfer case would send power to all four wheels like the 1991 truck, which is the only sensible way to get 1,064 hp onto the pavement in a pickup.
The original Syclone proved that an everyday GMC pickup with the right hardware could beat a Ferrari, and this concept turns that formula up to 1,064 hp.
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