Category: Archives

A Trip To The Toy Shop

One of the things that I like doing sometime during the workweek is to wander through the Banks Race Shop. It is really an amazing place. I can’t think of any other place in the world where I could find high-flow intake manifolds for diesel engines being developed, turbochargers being mounted on a V-12 tank engine and a one-of-a-kind diesel road race truck being built from the ground up… oh and by the way, just a few feet away is the world’s fastest pickup truck powered by a Cummins ISB engine.

April 22, 2005

Power Touring

A few of us here at Banks are stoked to be going on Hot Rod’s Power Tour this coming June. I’ve been threatening to go on Power Tour since they started it. What is it nine years already? Anyway, this was the year I was going to do the long haul in my ’63 Biscayne. Of course, I’d need to change its 4.56 gears to something a little more highway friendly. But, that’s easy.

April 21, 2005

Diesel Hot Rods

I’m a typical hot rodder. I build hot car after hot car. And of course, every one of them has been gasoline-powered. What else is there?

Well, how about diesel? After coming to work at Banks, my old ideas about high performance changed. All you have to do is drive one hot rodded turbodiesel pickup truck and you’ll understand. Turbodiesels can really haul $%&! In fact, I’ve been in some daily-driven trucks lately that could beat many so-called musclecars. And these trucks typically weigh 7,000 lbs.!

April 19, 2005

Pay the Piper…or Hire Another Band

Just the other day, I was fueling my vehicle at a service station. While I was there, the station attendant emerged with a handful of numbers to change the posted fuel prices. He didn’t change the gasoline prices, only the #2 diesel. It went up 4 cents per gallon. At that station, #2 diesel was then selling for 6 cents a gallon more than 91-octane premium gasoline, and 22 cents a gallon more than 87-octane regular gasoline. I remember thinking, that’s nuts!

April 19, 2005

Blue Oval Fever

I’m a Ford guy. I can’t explain why, except to say that from the time I was a young kid I have always felt more partial to the Blue Oval brand than others. It could be because my dad owned more Fords than other brands. I was one of 6 kids, so we always had large vehicles. I remember going to church in an early 70’s blue Econoline with a 3-on-the-tree shifter. I never got to drive that one, but I remember logging a lot of miles in it. It was replaced by a 1982 brown Econoline powered by a 289 V-8 with a variable venturi carburetor… not one of Ford’s better ideas. This one I did get to drive.

April 15, 2005

Giving Something Back

I’m sitting in my office waiting for the guys from WyoTech to arrive. This morning, I get to put something back into the diesel industry. I volunteered to work with WyoTech on the development of a light-duty diesel curriculum (with a high-performance overlay, of course).

We’re talking diesel pickups. There are now millions of them. The opportunity is huge for a young student as the demand is only going to get larger.

April 15, 2005

Why a Blog?

My job title at Banks is, “Corporate Journalist.” Pretty high falutin, huh? Not really. I’m just a scribe. I record a lot of what goes on around here. I document projects and vehicle buildups for corporate sponsors, provide info for magazine editors, write blogs, Blah, blah, blah.

I’m swamped trying to keep up with all that is going on at Banks. I remember thinking recently that we need to get the information I collect to the public faster. Then, out of the blue a few weeks ago, Gale asked me what I thought of the idea of launching a blog about Banks. I couldn’t get “yes” out fast enough.

April 14, 2005

Beware the Blog!

“The Blog!” Blog this and blog that — that’s all I’ve been hearing for the past month. Up until recently I thought folks were talking about the anamorphic amoeba with the voracious appetite that terrorized a small town back in the ’50s flick. They tried to stop it by burning it, shooting it and then blowing it up. Just about the only thing that’d stop it was freezing it. After all was said and done the thing grew from about the size of a pea to a giant glob.

April 14, 2005

The Race Shop

Most companies call it Research and Development. Here at Banks, we call it the Race Shop. I think of it as the toy room.

But calling it the Race Shop is not a bit far-fetched. This shop has not only turned out several true-blood race cars, but it has also produced several world record holders. That is a pregnant statement. The emphasis, here, is on several.

January 24, 2003

Winning Dodge

Well, here’s one for you Dodge boys (and girls). Specifically, I’m talking about the members of Turbo Diesel Register, otherwise known as TDR.

The TDR is actually based on a quarterly publication that started in 1993 with a stated purpose to be “an open forum for the exchange of information from the manufacturers to the owners,” and “to give Dodge diesel owners more satisfaction in the ownership of their truck.”

January 17, 2003