Fastest Naturally Aspirated Gas Pickup
Full Video Transcript
00:00 The Quest For Speed is almost as old as the Auto industry itself and for more than 70 years the place to race flat out has been the Bonville Salt Flats so it wasn’t surprising that when General Motors Corporation set out to conquer a new speed barrier they came to the Salt
00:18 Flats but it might be surprising that the vehicle they brought was a mini pickup last year this GMC S15 pickup set the record as the world’s fastest pickup truck this week the team from GMC and Gail Banks Engineering returned to set new records and for the first time to break
00:39 the 200 mph barrier in a pickup this truck is known as the Cyclone LSR for land speed record it’s powered by a 550 horsepower V6 engine and it rolls on street legal BF Goodrich radial tires the first trip down the salt was a Sizzler better than 205 5 mph the return
01:02 run was also over the coveted 200 mph barrier the two-way average 23.9 mph a new world record the team continued trying to push the record even higher until one dazzling run at more than 210 mph they were able to push the record average over 24 mil an hour presumably where it will stay for the
01:28 foreseeable future
Banks’ history is rich with record-setting cars, trucks, and boats. One such example was the naturally aspirated Banks GMC S-15 Syclone LSR (Land Speed Record). Gale Banks’ original concept was to run a full-size Sierra using all-wheel drive for better traction and more evenly distributed power on the salt. Power would come from a twin-turbocharged big-block 502. However, GM, who asked Gale to set the record using their truck, had other plans.
Gale’s hopes of a twin-turbo monster were squashed during a meeting about the record attempt with Chevy executives saying if there was going to be a full-sized performance truck, it was going to war a bowtie. GMC reps said that they didn’t make all-wheel-drive trucks and that none of the trucks they sold were turbocharged (yet). GM’s top brass wanted the truck’s image to be represented as a hopped-up stock truck that went to the salt. Banks was left with the S-15 mini-truck powered by a naturally aspirated V-6.
The largest engine displacement available in an S-15 was a 4.3-liter. Gale decided to bore and stroke the stock V6 engine to 5.0 liters. However, he still needed more power to break the speed record. A master of forced-induction, Banks devised a rather ingenious way to “supercharge” the air into the intake—naturally, with no forced induction. Ambient air was rammed in from two locations in the front of the truck and then passed through heat exchangers running circulated ice water from a tank in the truck bed and then into a specialized intake manifold. The intake air temperature decreased by 55°F, adding +30HP. This dramatically changed the intake air density and increased power throughout the run. In short, Gale intercooled the intake and supercharged the air.
In the Summer of 1989, the Banks Syclone (despite having the aerodynamics of a brick) went on to take five records, including an FIA International World Speed Record of 204 MPH, and had a top speed at 210 MPH. In the end, GMC did in fact offer the S-15 with a turbocharged engine and all-wheel drive. Just think what Gale could have done if GM allowed him to do what he wanted in the first place.