If you’ve ever wondered what Clint Eastwood drives, wonder no further. The legend himself gave Jimmy Fallon the answer in 2016 – and it’s one very few on Earth could ever guess.
Leave it to Jimmy Fallon to tell legendary actor and director Clint Eastwood that he envisions the man “driving a horse” around New York when he visits. Take that for what you will. The prompt does at least, however, lead to a revealing discussion that’s sure to make Eastwood’s fans happy.
“Can I try to guess what you drive?” Fallon asks in the 2016 segment. “Because I think people would guess you drive, like a muscle car… I think… you drive a truck,” he tells a stoic Eastwood.
There’s a hilarious pause, before Eastwood answers… “I could drive a truck.”
“What do you drive?” Fallon asks after the audience’s laughter dies down. And this is where the big reveal comes in, ladies and gentlemen.
Ready to guess what the one and only Clint Eastwood chooses to drive around town? Or, at the very least, what he was in love with driving in 2016?
“I drive a Typhoon, a GMC Typhoon,” the rugged icon smirks. “It’s ‘out of print’ now,” he adds, much to the host and audience’s amazement.
“I’ve never heard of that, ever!” Fallon leans in. “Of course…”
“It’s actually a turbo, V6. It’s fast,” Eastwood smiles, clearly in love with his rare classic.
“Yes!” Fallon lauds alongside the audience, which erupts into cheers. Turns out both Jimmy’s guess of “muscle car” and “truck” were far more on the nose than he thought! Or the whole thing was staged… Either way, it’s a fantastic reveal for Clint Eastwood fans, as a GMC Typhoon is far from a conventional answer.
Watch the interview segment below, courtesy of The Tonight Show, which is well worth it for fans of the icon. Then we’ll get into exactly what the hell a GMC Typhoon is below.
Clint Eastwood and the GMC Typhoon
So what exactly is a GMC Typhoon, you ask? Well, for starters, it’s not the muscle car it sounds like. A Typhoon is, in fact, a truck. Eastwood is such a die-hard fan of the “out of print” trucks, in fact, that General Motors actually published an article about his association with the line in 2020:
“Clint Eastwood is different from your typical celebrity. Famous for playing hard-nosed characters like Dirty Harry and The Man with No Name, Eastwood owns that persona off the big screen as well,” GM begins. “While other stars opt for Lambos and Land Rovers, he opts for a certain GMC. And while the uninitiated may want to call this a stingy or low-rent move, they clearly know nothing of the GMC Typhoon.”
Now that’s how you sell an old truck! Also known as the “Syclone,” these GMC specialties “featured a turbocharged/intercooled 4.3-liter V6 making 280 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque.”
All in all, the GMC Typhoon was only produced from 1992 to 1993. They are remarkably scarce, too, making for a hot collector’s truck. Enter Clint Eastwood, an avid motor-head, who now owns one of only “4,697 examples” ever made.
