Category: Projects

Stock intake manifold vs. Banks Big Hoss

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!

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The Snake on the Wall

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.

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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.

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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.

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Marine Animal

Going quicker and faster than any other diesel-powered vehicle on the dragstrip is the obvious incentive for building the Sidewinder dragster.

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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…

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Banks Sidewinder Jetta TDI

When the Robert Bosch Corporation came to Banks and asked if they could inject some excitement into the rather pedestrian Volkswagen Jetta TDi, the answer was “heck

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