The Leader in Diesel Performance
(From the Archives – 07.26.02)
For many years, since establishing their Shady Grove Farm in Bradbury, California, Gale and family have held a large Christmas party for relatives, friends, co-workers, and associates. Since many of these people tended to be gearheads of one type or another, they’d arrive in a broad variety of interesting vehicles.
(From the Archives – 11.01.02)
A few weeks ago we showed and told you about Brandon Mojarro’s 2001 Ford F-250 Power Stroke 4×4 shortbed pickup and how well he was doing at local truck pull competitions with a Banks PowerPack and Level 5 Big Hoss chip being his only engine modifications.
(From the Archives – 08.16.02)
The big news this week is Bonneville, better known since 1949 as Speed Week. In fact today (Friday) is the last day of running, so I don’t really have final results. Gale went out last weekend for the opening days. Gale can’t stay away from Bonneville. He’s been competing there since the early ’60s. He has set many different records in several classes, and actually still holds two current records that have stood for more than ten years each (including what was, for a long time, the world’s fastest production-bodied car and the world’s fastest pickup).
David Downs Goliath at Baja
(From the Archives – Circa November 2004)
A virtually stock 2003 Cummins diesel-powered Dodge Ram 2500 4X4 Pickup truck takes 3rd Place in the “Stock Full” class at 2004 Baja 1000. The truck is equipped with Banks’ Six-Gun Bundle.
(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.
(From the Archives – 04.05.02)
You might think that discussing header flanges is about as exciting as listening to a lengthy dissertation on muffler bearings. In most cases, you’d be right. But when I toured the tube shop here at Banks, the first thing that got my attention were the header flanges. They’re the thickest and flattest I’ve ever seen. There are several reasons for this.
50 years of automotive and marine engineering innovation was put on display at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum to honor Gale Banks and his achievements.
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.