The Leader in Diesel Performance
(From the Archives – 01.25.02)
I have a confession to make (I know some of you are into confessional mode). Before I started this job, I didn’t know how to use a computer as anything other than a typewriter. My computer at home is connected only to itself. I write to disc. If I had to email something, I handed the disc to my wife and asked her to do it, please.
(From the Archives – 03.01.02)
As I said in my introduction, the Friday Night News won’t necessarily talk about what’s happening this week at Gale Banks Engineering. We might talk about what’s happening now, what’s in the future, or what happened in the past. Here’s one from a decade and a half ago.
It might not look like it in these pictures, but, when these shots were taken, the Banks Top Diesel Dragster was only a few hours away from going into the trailer for its first trip to the test track.
Remember the Stray Cats’ smash hit album Built for Speed? Even Brian Setzer himself couldn’t fathom the speeds that the Banks machines are capable of.
Last time I left you with the first firing of the Banks Top Diesel Dragster engine. The guys weren’t just starting this thing up just to hear it purr. The dragster will run soon; very soon. In fact, you’re going to get two Banks machines for the price of one.
April 2009, After a strong reception at its spectacular unveiling at the SEMA Show last November, the new Banks Sidewinder Top Diesel Dragster had to wait its turn in line while the Banks S-10 Sidewinder Pickup* went out to the starting line a few last times to finish up its development work with the powerful GMC Duramax engine that will also power the Dragster.
Burbank, California March 21, 2009 – When Jay Leno calls from the Big Dog Garage and asks: “What’s new?” No one jokes back: “New York, New Jersey, or New Brunswick.” What Gale Banks answered back was the news that his diesel-powered Chevy S-10 Duramax-powered drag truck had just set both a new ET number and a top speed record. Leno immediately answered back with a invitation for Banks to bring the speedy Sidewinder out to Jay’s Garage for a twelve (plus) minute walk-around of the machine. Quite a day Jay!
I’m writing this from my hotel room in Sacramento, Ca. See, Gale and I were invited to participate in an event Bosch is putting on here at the state’s capital called California Diesel Days. The intention of this outing is to raise the awareness of the legislative group in the toughest and most mandated “Green” state in the Union…
Some of you might have had the chance to see the webcast, while others… well you were probably at work since it was in the middle of the day. For those of you who missed it, or were working for the man, I’ll post video on the whole thing once I get it in. There were great presentations from all of the panel members, including one from BMW explaining how today’s diesel works. Very simple explanation, and easily understood…
There are certain moments that you remember from your youthful days that are so vivid that you can actually recall every detail of that point in time: what you were wearing, what something smelled like, etc. These events can be good, bad, important or just plain trivial. As for me I have many of those “scrapbook” memories taking up valuable space on the hard drive in my head, but one especially stands out in this day and age that we’re in.
Azusa, California – – No, it’s not the Bayeux Tapestry, but perhaps it might be considered as the American motorsports equivalent of it.
It’s the colorful 63 and-a-half-foot long, five foot tall, timeline-history of Gale Banks Engineering that stretches a full 50 years and features over 400 illustrations that go all the way back to 1958!