We Twin-Turbo’d Leno’s V12 Hemi
Full Video Transcript
00:00 this is a 1792 cubic inch Continental V12 Hemi its sister is in Jay Leno’s tank car it’s March 9th 2004 I’m sitting in the hospital room holding my newborn grandson my phone rings and it’s Leno he says what’s his name I say Bronson he says cool name I want a turbo the tank
00:22 car designed for Korean War Tanks the 30 L aircooled engine was good for 810 horsepower on 80 octane fuel the tank it was designed to move weighed 48.6 tons the power to weight ratio was 17.6 horsepower per ton Jay’s car is quite a bit lighter weighing in at only 5 tons
00:46 of which 2300 lb is engine Jay asked me to double the horsepower and make it reliable so we build A banks twin turbo system using Garrett Teo 691 famous for the use on Indie Cars we engineered intake manifolds with Expansion Joints because the aluminum engine would grow
01:04 so much we fabricated exhaust manifolds and straight pipe exhaust yes it sounds badass we replaced the carburetors with Bosch fuel injection originally designed for B12 Formula 1 engines fuel injectors were fed by a pair of banks Billet fuel rails when we were done it produced
01:22 1,600 horsepower at 2800 RPM want to know more about the car and its engine let me know in the comments.
“It’s March 9th, 2004 I’m sitting in the hospital room holding my newborn grandson,” recalls Gale Banks in his latest video. “My phone rings and it’s Jay Leno. He says, ‘What’s his name?’ I say, ‘Bronson.”’ He says, ‘Cool name. I want to turbo the tank car!’ …all in one sentence. I said yes, and he brought us the car.”
Designed for Korean War-era tanks, the 30-liter air-cooled Continental V12 Hemi engine was good for 810 horsepower on 80-octane fuel. The tank it was designed to move weighed 48.6 tons. The power to weight ratio was 17.6 hp per ton. Jay’s car is quite a bit lighter, weighing in at only 5 tons, of which 2,300 pounds is engine.
“Jay asked me to double the horsepower and make it reliable,” Gale says with a chuckle. “So, we built a Banks twin-turbo system using Garrett TE0-691s, famous for their use on Indy cars. We engineered intake manifolds with expansion joints because the aluminum engine would grow so much. We fabricated exhaust manifolds and straight-pipe exhausts. Yes, it sounds bad-ass.”
Gale and the team replaced the carburetors with Bosch fuel injection designed for V12 Formula 1 engines and fuel injectors were fed by a pair of Banks billet fuel rails. It was all designed to look retro.
“When we were done,” says Gale, “it produced 1,600 horsepower at 2800 RPM. And we doubled the fuel economy which was easy because the tank guzzled 2.3 gallons per mile.”