GMC. From army trucks to the modern pickups
GMC, formerly known as GM Truck and Coach or GMC Truck, is an automobile brand owned by General Motors (GM), an American corporation, one of the largest automotive companies in the world. Trucks, SUVs, pickup trucks, and vans are manufactured under the GMC brand. Nowadays, GMC is a leader in the Armerican marker, second only to the Chevrolet brand.
Legendary GMC trucks and pickup trucks have made history in the US, embodied the spirit of freedom and have appeared in movies many times. The first car lifted by a boy from the planet Krypton in the 1978 film Superman is a red GMC pickup of 1946. The character of the ‘Cars’ cartoon, the tow truck called ‘Mater’, clearly has a lot in common with the cars GMC 1955-1956. Clint Eastwood as a reporter in ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ rides a dark green GMC from early '60s. In ‘Alien vs. Predator’, the protagonist, a schoolboy from a poor family, drives a mustard GMC pickup truck.
The abbreviation GMC has a double meaning: it is the abbreviation of one of the world’s largest American automobile group General Motors Corporation and the brand of civil and military vehicles produced by it. To avoid a confusion, the huge corporation is called GM, and GMC is the name of its cargo division.
How it all began?
In 1901, Max Grabowski, a Polish-American, established a car company called the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company. The Rapid truck, which immediately gained popularity, was its first model. General Motors shortly acquired the Reliance Motor Car Company. And after their merger in 1911, GMC Truck company was born. The joint company had produced 22,000 cars by 1912.
GMC Trucks set one record after another, including the records follows:
- In 1916, a truck crossed the United States in 30 days.
- In 1926, a truck traveled from New York to San Francisco in 5 days and 30 minutes.
In 1925, GM bought a majority stake in Yellow Coach, a bus manufacturer. After the merger with GMC Truck, the resulting company was named GM Truck and Coach Division and started to produce trucks of various tonnages, decorated with its own logo. In 1931, the T-95 truck appeared, which had four speeds and could carry up to 15 tons. In 1934, in the wake of the brand’s success, the world’s first truck with an over-engine cab was introduced, which, as it developed, took on streamlined shapes that contributed to lower drag and lower fuel consumption. In 1935, GMC got its own diesel engines. In 1938, the T-14 pickup truck was released, which could carry up to 500 kg of cargo. In 1939, models of the A series began to be produced, the numbers of which ranged from 100 to 850.
During the World War II, the company supplied more than 600,000 vehicles, tanks, parts for submarines, and special trucks for the needs of the front, many of which came to the USSR as part of the Lend-Lease program. One of these vehicles turned out to be the DUKW amphibious vehicle, capable of moving both by water and by land and transporting soldiers and equipment. This ‘Duck’ was produced in three versions: two-, four- and eight-ton.
Nowadays, GMC takes the leading position in the US market, second only to the Chevrolet brand.
In 1956, the first 4WD truck rolled off the assembly line. In 1968, the production of the Astro-95 was launched, the cabin of which was located above the engine. In 1987 the company sells the bus division and exits the bus business. By this time, the production of GMC trucks was also discontinued.
A new era has begun for the company. In 1991, the company’s first full-size SUV, the Yukon, was introduced. It was in those years that the formation of a segment of huge luxury off-road vehicles began, which became especially popular in the US and Canada. Since then, more than 7 models of the company have been presented. These models were continuously among the five most popular SUVs in the US market until 2001, when another division of GM, Cadillac, took up the production of luxury SUVs. But it was the GMC Tahoe that formed the basis for the Cadillac Escalade and the Hammer H2.
The change in the course of the parent company led to the fact that GMC was retrained as a manufacturer of commercial vehicles, among which the GMC pickup trucks were especially popular, second only to the Ford F150 in sales. In 1996, the brand name was changed to GMC. In 1999, the Sierra ACE pickup appeared with many chrome parts and a six-seat cab with a third door on the right. In 2001, there was a change of generations of Envoy cars, which began to be equipped with both back-wheel drive and all-wheel drive. In 2007, the American company introduced the GMC Acadia SUV, and 2 years later, the GMC Terrain appeared, which is the company’s smallest crossover.
GMC&Chevrolet
Beginning in 1920, after Chevrolet became part of GM, the GMC and Chevrolet trucks have become similar in many ways. They were built on the same platform and had almost the same body structure. Unless the nameplates and grilles were different. At the same time, GMC sold its trucks to commercial enterprises, and Chevrolet aimed at private customers. Of course, there were also differences in the engines. For example, from 1939 to 1974, GMC had its own line of 6-cylinder engines, first-in-line, known as ‘Jimmy’, then its own V6, V8, and V12 engines.
GMC pickups in the US are second only to the Ford F150 in sales.
While new Chevrolets were sold exclusively at Chevrolet dealerships, GMC vehicles were sold at dealerships along with Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile. And one more detail, from 1962 to 1972, most GMC cars were equipped with four-phase headlights, while their Chevrolet siblings were equipped with double headlights.
In 1971, GMC first marketed its version of the Chevrolet El Camino called the GMC Sprint. It was almost identical to the El Camino car, even its sporty SP version was equivalent to the El Camino SS. In 1973, when GM introduced a new series of trucks called the ‘Round Line’, the GMC and Chevrolet trucks became even more similar, even their headlights were the same.
