Category: Banks Vehicles

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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One Camaro to Go

At least one magazine calls them Pro Tourers: a new kind of hot rod with big wheels, very low-profile tires, big brakes, super-tuned chassis, a 5 or 6 speed manual trans, and plenty of horsepower. In other words, a hot rod that drives in something other than a straight line and for distances longer than a quarter mile—much longer.

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Banks Power for Workhorse

At close to 500 cubic inches, the GM 8.1L Vortec in the Workhorse chassis is already the most powerful gasoline motorhome going. So how did the Banks engineers figure out how to get 22% more power out of it? That’s 66 more horsepower and 77 more lb.-ft. of torque. They did it the way we always do—by building prototypes and testing them exhaustively to see what really works best in the real world.

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See Sidewinder Run

Seems like hardly a week goes by that we don’t have something new to tell you about Project Sidewinder. This one will be short.

The news is that we had a video crew at Bonneville to capture all the action and sounds surrounding our record attempts, and you can now sample it on our Sidewinder web site.

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