Big Block Muscle, yet Forgotten by Most – the Chevy 454 SS

GMT400 is not a timezone name or a model name for Taiwanese tires. It is, as some will already know, a General Motors truck and SUV platform, that was used to build vehicles for over 14 years, providing transportation for TV mafioso Tony Soprano and many bad guys in the german TV series “Alarm für Kobra 11”. The GMC Yukon and Sierra, the Chevy Suburban, Tahoe, Blazer and the famous Cadillac Escalade – all of these trucks, some affordable work horses, some luxury family haulers, were built on this versatile base, without which the United States of the 1990s and 2000s would have been a very different place.

Simple, rugged and down to earth. A description fitting both the 454 SS and people who bought them

And in the early 1990s, the GMT400 was used as the very platform for something quite special. Everyone has heard of the GMC Syclone and Typhoon, which at the time of production were some of the fastest motor cars in the world, reaching 60 mph in an eye-sinking 4.3 seconds. By doing so, however, it sacrificed a lot of practicality, as it could carry or tow around only 300 kilograms or 661 pounds in freedom units.

The 454SS, a heavily modified C1500 Short bed truck, introduced in 1990, could have solved this problem for you. Although bigger and more practical, it was cheaper and simpler than the fast and small Syclone.

Even with the shortest available bed, The C1500 based 454 SS was useful and versatile for hauling something and doing it fast

Old School Muscle

The name 454 SS simply tells you what is producing all the oomph in cubic inches, i.e. 7.4 liters. 454 cubic inches incidentally is also the amount of food your grandmother puts on your plate whenever you visit her. If the 255 horsepower doesn’t blow you away, certainly the healthy 405 lb-ft will. The SS badging on the truck continued the old Chevrolet “Super Sport” nomenclature dating back to the 1961 Impala SS. The 454 SS pickup truck got factory fitted Bilstein dampers, stiffer suspension components, a faster steering column, and a pitch black exterior paint with classic GM red accents.

The bright, rich and red velour of the 80s, spilling out into the 90s. Along with blocky dashboards, it was a familiar sight in a lot of American car interiors

The aforementioned powerplant under the hood had lost more than 100 horsepower since its inception in 1970. The 454SS accelerates to 60 miles an hour in just under 8 seconds, and in doing so, it guzzles gas like an HR manager drinks coffee. That’s 22 L/100km or a mere 10,6 MPG.

The heart of the beast. One of the largest series production passenger vehicle engines ever made

Chevrolet boldly promoted the presence of the 454 SS, featuring prominent decals on both sides of the truck bed, a distinctive red bow-tie emblem at the front, and, on some models, a big sticker on the bed. In 1990, all models had a sinister, all-black body finish with a darkened grille, air dam-integrated fog lights, and chrome wheels. Exclusive bucket seats with bright red upholstery and a center console marked the styling changes in the interior, and helped set the truck apart from pedestrian models.

Plain and simple, and that’s why it worked

The bodywork of this Chevrolet was conservative and streamline. By the second half of the 1990s, General Motors, especially with more luxurious products, such as the Oldsmobile Aurora, had gone a much more daring, bold and innovative design route, which unfortunately meant it would go out of fashion quite quickly. This was not the case with GMT400 based vehicles. Simplicity and clarity have kept them desirable to this day, not least because of their homely design that conveys a traveling and suburban atmosphere. They are comfortable, convenient and extremely cheap to maintain. The versatility of the platform and the wide range of resources made all GMT400 models, including the 454SS, an easy thing to manufacture and a simple way of figuring out if the market needed a sporty truck at the time.

Which, by the way, was nothing new in the GM portfolio. There have been pickups focused on speed and the fun-to-drive factor before, like the 1978-80 GMC ‘Street Coupe’, or the Dodge ‘Lil’ Red Express’ from the same period, but short body pickups have become increasingly unpopular over time.

Even though these were largely forgotten, the trending love for 90s performance vehicles hasn’t skipped the 454 SS, as it pulls large amounts of money whenever a well preserved example comes up for sale

Low production, but strong legacy

In 1990, as many as 13,000 units were sold. Produced in limited numbers, a few more were sold over the next few years, bringing the total to 17,000. Quite a lot, considering the popularity of the GMC Syclone and Typhoon these days, which had a much smaller production run. The 454 SS’s recipe of cramming the biggest engine available into the smallest body truck later gave birth to the Chevrolet Silverado SS, Ford F-150 Lighting and, spiritually, the recently released electric Ford Lighting, both of which are sinking into the pages of history only as semi-practical and semi-fun vehicles. Others had a go too. Let’s not forget the wacko Dodge Ram SRT 10.