Gale Banks. A Household Name?!
Hola. Just a little ditty to illustrate how much Banks has been in the media this Summer. It’s been amazing!
It has gotten to the point that we’ve even coined a new term for hot rodding it to the max. We’re going to “Banks it.”
Nice.
In Print…
August 12, 2005
23.6 MPG from a Truck that Runs 222 MPH!
OK, you haven’t heard from me in a while and I’m going to use the same excuse as everyone else; Power Tour, blah, blah, blah. But since I am doing so, I would like to continue my theme on fuel economy with a report from the Power Tour. As you know, we took five vehicles on the Tour, four trucks with diesels of various flavors and one truck with a twin turbo small block Chevy. One of the trucks that completed the entire 1700+ mile trip was the Banks Sidewinder Dakota. You remember this truck, it holds the world record as the fastest pickup truck at a top speed of 222 mph. The cool thing is, it is completely street drivable and is actually fun to drive.
July 28, 2005
The World’s First Road Racing Pickup Truck
How many of you know that Banks’ Race Shop is building a roadracing truck? Did you know that the truck is going to be diesel powered? That’s right! A diesel powered roadracing truck! And it will be twin-turbocharged!
What’s the big deal you say? Well, diesels have several advantages over gasoline. First is mileage. Diesels generally achieve 20-40% higher mileage than gasoline-powered equivalents. Improving mileage means less fuel stops in an endurance race. This is a huge advantage and one that can shave critical minutes off of a team’s total time.
July 6, 2005
Running After the Ice Cream Man, or Picking up the Sidewinder
Remember when you were a kid and you heard that sound? You know, the sound that could motivate the dead to rise and you to drop whatever you were doing and run like hell screaming with whatever coins you could find clinched into your tiny hands? It was a melody that seemed to carry through the air even from miles away and could interrupt anything that was going on in your life at the time making you swing your head it the direction it was coming from. Yeah…
June 30, 2005
What a Long, Strange Trip its Been
Throwing a bunch of guys together for a seven day, 1,700-mile tour is bound to have its ups and downs. This sign found in Joe’s Crab Shack in Kissimmee, Florida on the last day of Power Tour says it all. The merry bunch of Banks employees (and journalists) that traveled with us now share a common bond and many memories that will last a lifetime.
We did the ‘long haul’ with virtually no problems to speak of and the 2005 Hot rod Magazine Power Tour was a great success. It was an excellent way for Gale Banks Engineering to meet its customers and make new friends and champions for our current and future products.
June 28, 2005
Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour: A Huge Success!
Perhaps you’ve noticed the lack of blogs from all of us during Power Tour? The days went by like lightning. There was, literally, no time to blog. Here’s how our tour went.
Day one:
Wake up (5:30 a.m.); shower; shave; meet in hotel lobby (7:00 a.m.); quick breakfast (7:15 a.m.); schlep bags to the truck-of-the-day (8:00 a.m.); drive to event city (usually around 300 miles); park truck at booth (2:00 p.m.); get swarmed by gawkers (2:01 p.m.); talk to people about Banks products (2:01-8:00 p.m.); pack up trailer (8:00 p.m.); eat dinner (9:00 p.m.); sleep (10:30 p.m.); zzz
Repeat six times.
June 15, 2005
Air Travel Hell: Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour (Pre-Tour)
4:44 a.m.
Okay, the trip stared off badly when the shuttle van that was supposed to pick me up at 4:00 a.m. hadn’t arrived by 4:30. When I called, they told me, “oh, our driver just now told us he was experiencing vehicle trouble…” Great. What about my ride to the airport?
The shuttle company called a cab for me and my $45 trip to the airport wound up costing $68.30. The shuttle company is going to pay me the difference. Yea – there’s money I won’t be seeing again anytime soon. The only saving grace was Richard, my taxi driver, was also an Armenian philosopher. I got an Armenian history lesson on the drive to the airport. Interesting.
June 4, 2005
Banks Sidewinder All-Terrains are Ready to GO!
We’ve been busy getting all three 2005 Banks Sidewinder All-Terrain trucks finished and ready for Power Tour. Now they are READY!
June 1, 2005