The Leader in Diesel Performance
Well, it’s been a long time coming but we finally were there: the Miami International Boat Show. Well… we visited the thing for a few years in a row as a guest of General Motors, but this year we were on display and officially showing off our marinized Duramax diesel engine which we will be testing soon.
Gale Banks has been chosen to moderate the Clean Diesel Automaker Roundtable at the upcoming California Diesel Days conference. Azusa, Calif. – – Gale Banks has been
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!
Hey again guys and gals. I’m getting some questions as to how the stock intake manifold compares to the Banks Big Hoss manifold. I could go on and on about the details but I figured that a picture is worth a thousand words so here’s the comparison (if you can really call it that). I do need to point out here that these are for hardcore engine builds ONLY. This is for you guys wanting 1000hp+ without having to run 100psi of boost. This isn’t something you can bolt on in an hour for your daily driver. These parts are straight off our drag race/road race trucks. Caution: LOTS OF PICTURES!
Gale takes the Sidewinder S-10 drag truck over to Jay Leno’s for some fun and burnouts. Burbank, California March 21, 2009 – When Jay Leno calls from
There it was, all 19 (and change) feet of gleaming black carbon fiber: the Banks Top Diesel Sidewinder main body, floating there in space, 6 feet high with that really “speed hungry” looking snake on the side that seems spitting out a warning to watch out for some Duramax diesel-powered drag racing speed in the very near future.
Gale Banks himself just arrived. As you can imagine it didn’t take long for the group of people looking at the truck to immediately start talking with Gale. I have to admit that working for Gale Banks is a little strange, but in a good way. Growing up, my father, an old school hot-rodder himself would talk about him all the time. He would tell me how fast his engines were, how many world records he had, show me articles in Hot Rod magazine about him. Heck he even had one of Gale’s early twin turbo systems for our boat, and now I work for “the man” himself.
It’s Saturday March 7th 2009 and we’re back at the SpeedWorld drag strip in Wittman Arizona. It’s time to go racing. Being as this is my first diesel only event I’m really not sure what to expect. Oh sure, I’ve been to some NHRA events before, but the only diesels there were in the parking lot and were hooked up to the race trailers. Here we’ve got both. Diesel trucks towing trailers loaded with, well, diesel trucks. Ok, not all of them. The crew from Texas Diesel Power just arrived with their diesel powered Funny Car, and another crew just showed up with a diesel powered “rat-rod”. I must admit both of those cars are so very cool, I’d love to go over and check them both out, but we have work to do.
Going quicker and faster than any other diesel-powered vehicle on the dragstrip is the obvious incentive for building the Sidewinder dragster.