1981: The Sundowner

In 1981 the “Sundowner” Corvette, powered by an ice-water intercooled Banks 430 cubic inch marine twin-turbo big block become the “World’s Fastest Passenger Car” clocking in a speed of 240 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Bob Kehoe’s super-fast Vette was painted, rigged, and driven by Duane McKinney for its record run which took the title away from the “Hanky Panky” Studebaker, another vehicle that also used a Banks-developed twin-turbo power plant. The power produced from the Banks engine used in the Sundowner was a feat of engineering difficult to accomplish even by today’s modern high-performance engines and made well over a thousand horsepower on pump gas at a power-robbing altitude of 4,219 feet for the five-mile runs at WOT.