MADE IN THE USA Top Alcohol Funny Car

For Gale Banks, racing isn’t really seen as a chance to flex muscles and brag. It’s about who’s the fastest or most powerful. Racing is an opportunity to invent and test under extreme environments. Furthermore, it’s not time to push the boundaries of what is already made. But to rewrite what can be done with new practices and technologies. So many of his competition vehicles have actually been rolling testbeds for new technology, and no one ever notices. Take his 1988 project vehicle MADE IN THE USA top alcohol funny car. Legend Don “the Snake” Prudhomme’s last funny car was fitted by Banks with a 500 cubic inch aluminum big block. Additionally, it had twin turbos, custom blow-thru carbs, and a laundry list of other jaw-dropping parts. But it was those turbos that had the real secret sauce.

The turbo setup featured an experimental set of variable volute selectors invented by Banks. They were sandwiched between each exhaust manifold’s exit and the turbo. These devices allowed exhaust gas to be directed into the turbo’s twin-scroll turbine housing first cutting off entry to one of the turbo’s volutes and directing a full force of exhaust gas to the turbine wheel. It opened at a controlled point to expose the turbine’s secondary inlet volute. This eliminated lag, enabled complete manipulation of the turbo’s speed, and created what is commonly known today as VNT or VGT (variable geometry turbo). This helped the car produce over 1,800 horsepower becoming the quickest gas-burning drag race car until it was almost immediately banned from competing. NHRA officials claimed that turbo cars had an “unfair advantage.”