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Gale Banks’ Favorite Car, Ever!

Some friends have asked me to pick my favorite car. This is easy, even though I’ve Hot Rodded everything I’ve ever touched, even the ones I shouldn’t have, my choice is my 87 Pontiac.

Banks Twin Turbo 283 mph street Trans Am on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1987. We managed to go fast even though the air conditioning was on the fritz.

More correctly it is an 1987 Trans Am GTA, Pro Touring suspension, 1820hp Gasoline 427″ BBC, Twin Turbos w/dual blow thru 4500 Holleys, liquid coupled intercooling with belt drive pump, Richmond 6 speed, tail stock quick change, 9.5″ NASCAR axle, Koni adjustable coil over shocks, Eibach springs, power windows, tilt wheel, surround sound. Shown here with Bonneville Tires fitted. It looks exactly like this today. It ran a best of 283 mph at Bonneville in 1987.
It was the fastest street car on the planet for more than 10 years.

This photo from 1986 shows the engine layout for my firebird. The Banks Twin Turbo layout has an air mass capacity of 1820hp. You can see the quick change overdrive box on the back end of the transmission. It allows the final drive ratio to be changed in 15 min without changing the ring and pinion gears. overdrive for Bonneville, under drive for drag racing or street.

My 87 Firebird GTA on the Salt. Cold Ram-Air inlets in the lower front fascia are a Banks trade mark look. The guys on the starting line were stopped dead by the car’s power windows.

This is my favorite car because with its aero numbers, the new Centerline Series turbos we’re tooling and our upcoming AutoMind Gasoline Engine Control Unit, we have more to work with today. Using that I estimate that there’s an easy 320 to 330 mile in this car.

Gale Banks

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