Long before the phrase "performance SUV" became a marketing staple, GMC quietly built one of the most surprising machines of the early 1990s. The Typhoon took the humble two-door S-15 Jimmy, stuffed a turbocharged and intercooled V6 under the hood, bolted in all-wheel drive, and created a truck that could humble sports cars at a stoplight. This particular 1993 example, currently listed on Cars & Bids, takes that already-bold formula and pushes it into genuinely wild territory.
Finished in black over a gray leather interior, this Typhoon shows roughly 81,700 miles and wears a clean Montana title. From across a parking lot it reads like a tidy, well-kept survivor: the Typhoon-specific body kit is intact, the fog lights are in place, and the factory two-door SUV proportions still look purposeful three decades on. The seller notes the truck rolls on 18-inch Kansei wheels and has had HID headlight upgrades, with a few small cosmetic to-dos still on the list, like matching the fog lights to the headlights and buffing the tailgate.
Under the skin is where this one separates itself from a stock Typhoon. The seller reports a long list of drivetrain upgrades built around a Precision turbocharger, aftermarket fuel injectors, an aftermarket water/methanol injection system, and a Nitrous Express setup feeding the engine when called upon. An MSD ignition box and aftermarket ECU tuning round out the combination, and the original 4-speed automatic still routes power to all four wheels. According to the seller, the truck has run 10-second quarter-mile passes on the spray, with both a hot-rod tune and a dedicated race tune loaded and ready.
The interior carries the Typhoon's surprisingly plush original brief: leather upholstery, power windows and locks, and the comfortable bucket seats that made these trucks genuine daily-drivers rather than stripped-out drag specials. A Sony head unit is the most obvious change inside. Buyers will want to note the Carfax shows some reporting gaps, though no accidents or odometer discrepancies are listed for the periods that are documented.
So where does a truck like this land in today's market? The GMC Typhoon has steadily climbed from underappreciated oddball to legitimate collector piece, and the data backs that up. Hagerty's valuation tools currently list a 1993 Typhoon in #3 (Good) condition at roughly $24,200, with cleaner, lower-mile examples commanding more. That gives buyers a useful reference point, but modified trucks like this one are trickier to pin down. Heavily built examples can attract enthusiasts who want the added punch, yet purists often pay the strongest money for unmolested, stock survivors. The result is that a nitrous-fed, turbo-upgraded Typhoon tends to be valued more on the quality and reputation of its build than on a straight read of the price guide.
With the auction still live and bidding active, this is one to watch for anyone who has ever wanted the ultimate sleeper SUV from the era that invented the concept. Whether you'd keep it set to the hot-rod tune for street duty or flip to the race tune and chase those 10-second slips, this GMC proves the Typhoon's reputation as a giant-killer is alive and well.
