Banks Sidewinder S-10 Archives

7 seconds – Part 3

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.

March 17, 2009

7 seconds – Part 2

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.

March 15, 2009

Seven Seconds – Part 1

Seven seconds. It doesn’t sound like a long period of time does it? Think about it for a minute. Seven seconds. It actually takes longer then seven seconds to even write out the words “seven seconds”. It takes me longer than that to unlock my truck, put on my seat belt, and start the ignition. But in the short span of just about seven seconds, the Banks Sidewinder S-10 drag truck has gone from a dead stop to over 180 miles per hour…

March 11, 2009

S-10 Project Overview Update

Azusa, Calif. – – The Banks Sidewinder S-10 Duramax pickup just gets faster every time it runs! And on Saturday March 7, the dark red truck with

March 9, 2009

The World’s Quickest Diesel Pickup Breaks New Ground

The words “fast” and “diesel” aren’t commonly spoken in the same breath. Diesel trucks, the Clydesdales of the truck world, have always been one-dimensional work trucks, clattering

January 1, 2009

“BANKS POWER – THE FIRST 50 YEARS” OPENS AT WALLY PARKS NHRA MUSEUM – POMONA, CA

Pomona, California – – On Wednesday, December 3, 2008, fifty years of automotive and marine engineering innovation was put on display at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports

December 12, 2008

Sidewinder S-10 Drag Truck Update

It’s mid-May 2008, and we are now at a power level with the Banks Sidewinder S-10 that is reminding me of all the nitromethane-burning engines I raced back in the day. We are using up pistons like a good thing. We’re not changing them every run like I did with my nitro-burning rails and drag boats, but we’re changing them too damn often for a diesel. We’ve been doing it for a while, and it’s only gotten more problematic as we’ve made more power and gotten down into the 7.70s. Now we are too close to “running on kill” for my liking.

May 14, 2008