Thursday, February 2, is the last day of the Bring a Trailer auction for a 1993 GMC Typhoon with C4 Corvette wheels. The Typhoon was the first SUV fast enough to beat some of the most expensive cars from the 1990s. In 1992, the quarter-mile was done at 95 mph in 14.1 seconds by the all-wheel-drive Typhoon with 280 horsepower. The GMC Typhoon, made by General Motors in the early 1990s, was the first high-performance SUV. This was a long time before performance-focused SUVs were even a thing. Hearst Automobiles owns Car and Driver, and the website Bring a Trailer, where a 1993 model is currently up for auction. Even though the Typhoon in question should not be in a museum, it is a part of history that I could destroy without feeling bad about it. The 1993 Typhoon on BaT with 16-inch C4 Corvette wheels caught my eye immediately. The wheels that look like turbines and are also called “salad shooters” are beautiful. Call it blasphemy, but I’ve never liked the 16-inch wheels that come with the SUV. I also like that the system based on the Vette is historically accurate. The GMC Typhoon is fast because it has a 4.3-liter turbocharged V-6 engine and an all-wheel drive system that improves traction. At first, the engine made 280 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque. In 1993, the LT1 V-8 in the Chevy Camaro was slower than the Typhoon’s force-fed V-6. Think of the GMC SUV as a precursor to the Hellcat-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and Dodge Durango. The GMC is the twin of the Syclone that has a cargo bed. Anyone who has driven a modified two-door S-15 Jimmy will recognize it. When we put a 1991 model against a 1991 Ferrari 348ts, the Ferrari’s claim to fame was that the pickup truck blew off the side-straked doors of the Italian luxury car. Both the 0 to 60 mph race and the drag race were won by the Syclone, which also had a faster time than the Ferrari’s 5.3-second mark. At 99 mph, it took the 348ts 14.5 ticks, while the GMC took 14.1 seconds. Since the Typhoon was almost the same as the one we tested in 1992, the transitive property says that it would have been the same back then (its trap speed was two mph faster). The results of the tests done on the GMC Typhoon are still accurate today. It can go from 0 to 50 mph in 2.9 seconds, which is only 0.2 seconds slower than a 2022 Porsche Macan S. On the other hand, the Porsche SUV has a twin-turbo V-6 with 375 horsepower and is 500 pounds heavier. Two test results that have yet to hold up well over time are the Typhoon’s low cornering grip (0.79 g) and very long stopping distance of 70 mph to zero (185 feet). But both of those numbers would almost certainly go up if tested on modern summer tires instead of the original Firestone Firehawk SVX rubber, which is no longer made. It’s hard to say how the Typhoon sold at auction will do on the racetrack. It’s a little rough around the edges, as was already said. It has 85,000 miles on the odometer, but the body covering is loose and broken, and it looks like rust spots are underneath. But, unlike the Syclone, the leather seats in the Typhoon are intact and worn. It also has a back seat so I can take three people with me on the usual hell ride. As of this writing, the highest bid for the 1993 Typhoon on Bring a Trailer is $11,750. The no-reserve auction will end on Thursday. If I had extra money, which I don’t, I’d be happy to add GMC’s cult classic on C4 Corvette wheels to my collection, as long as the final bid doesn’t go any higher.
