Banks Sidewinder Dakota
This is the truck that shattered existing speed records – and people’s perception of diesel performance. Cummins diesel-powered Project Sidewinder set five land-speed records and became the World’s Fastest Pickup Truck.
Surpassing Gale Banks’ personal goal of 210 mph, the Banks Sidewinder smashed the world 159.647-mph record with an average speed of 217.314 mph, making Sidewinder the World’s Fastest Diesel Pickup! Amazing Overall Top Speed: 222.139 mph!
Try getting a pickup truck, with the aerodynamics of a brick, to go 222 MPH with a diesel engine. Banks did, and kept it street drivable too.
If you’ve never extensively modified a vehicle for performance, including a major engine and drivetrain swap, construction of a safety/chassis roll cage, and complete revision and replacement of the suspension, then you can’t imagine the amount of work required. Add a complete engine upgrade program, and all of the special equipment required for a Land Speed Record attempt at the Bonneville Salt Flats, and the task becomes monumental. It takes the resources and knowledge of companies like Cummins Engine Company, New Venture Gear, Wilwood Engineering, the Progress Group, and of course, Gale Banks Engineering to create a vehicle like the Project Sidewinder Dakota. Even so, after a year of preparation, the vehicle wasn’t declared “race ready” until midnight, Oct.16th, at the Banks Race Shop in Azusa, California. The World Finals had already begun earlier that same day at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, some 700 miles away.
Built entirely in Banks’ race shop, this 735 hp, 1300 lb-ft 5.9L Cummins-powered Dakota is street driven and averages 21.2 mpg on the Hot Rod Power Tour. The Banks Sidewinder® Dakota is the official F.I.A. World’s Fastest Diesel Truck @ 217 mph (two-way average) and a best one-way of 222 mph. It also towed its own support trailer to the salt!
Project Photo Gallery
Latest News
When it Comes to Racers…We Roll Our Own!
A friend asked for a race car sponsorship recently, but we usually don’t do that. When it comes to race cars, trucks or boats…it’s more fun to build and race our own! And, that way, if we do it wrong, win a race or set a record, it’s our own doing.
When it comes to fuel, ...
Read moreBanks Sidewinder Blower Test Series
At Banks Power we develop engines for uses ranging from winning wars (military) to winning races. We have done this, including the military part, since 1975. In those 40 years we have advanced our art and been on the winning team in building and powering all types of cars, trucks and boats, all over the ...
Read moreThis truck eats Corvettes for breakfast
Hey guys, here’s a video of the Banks Sidewinder Dakota blowing off a C6 Corvette in a street race over in Vegas. There turned out to be a cop behind them…no ticket, he just wanted a look under the hood.
Remember, the Dakota is geared for 222 mph at Bonneville!
Beat a Corvette with a Cummins, I ...
Read moreWorlds Fastest Pickup Truck
I just had a flash, we’ve held Worlds Fastest Diesel Pickup record at 222 mph for almost 15 years. Where’s the competition, the Banks Dakota Sidewinder is resting in the NHRA Motorsports Museum and it’s jonesing for a go!
It pulls a trailer too, ya know!
Gale Banks
Read moreDiesel Swaps
The Banks Rat Rod gets a Duramax, the Sidewinder Dakota gets a Cummins, and a who-knows-what gets an 866T.
In a special edition of Diesel Power magazine called “Diesel Swaps,” the writers and photographers covered “25 trucks, cars, and hot rods made better with diesel!”
ON THE COVER: We visited Gale Banks Engineering in Azusa, California, and ...
Read more“Banks Power – The first 50 years” Opens at Wally Parks NHRA Museum
50 years of automotive and marine engineering innovation was put on display at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum to honor Gale Banks and his achievements.
It’s called the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum. Inside this 28,500-square-foot building are some of the most important pieces in drag racing as well as motorsports history. From early sllngshot ...
Read more“BANKS POWER – THE FIRST 50 YEARS” OPENS AT WALLY PARKS NHRA MUSEUM – POMONA, CA
Pomona, California – – On Wednesday, December 3, 2008, fifty years of automotive and marine engineering innovation was put on display at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, in Pomona, California.
Pomona, California – – On Wednesday, December 3, 2008, fifty years of automotive and marine engineering innovation was put on display at the Wally Parks ...
Read moreNo smoke with fire
Smoke free, high efficiency diesel engines are Gale Banks Engineering’s specialty. We look at how the company progressed to become the undisputed leaders in the field.
To understand where native Southern Californian Gale Banks is going, it’s necessary to know where he’s come from. His Gale Banks Engineering company, now in its 50th year of operation, ...
Read moreOne On One With Gale Banks
Straight Talk With the Man Largely Identified as the Creator of the Diesel Aftermarket
Gale Banks is a hot rodder from the word go and is just as involved today as he was 50 years ago when he founded the company. But long before that he was a gearhead, and until this day he remains a ...
Read morePower Broker
Here’s a guy who’s done it all and done it well, and he has the records to prove it. You’ll find his name in the record books for building the fastest pickups on earth. This article features the Shop Truck, Gale’s 502SS, Sidewinder GMC Sierra, Sidewinder S-10, and the Sidewinder Dakota.
One of the benefits of ...
Read moreDrivelines Chatter: Gale Banks, Gale Banks Engineering
Gale Banks knows how to make power, whether he’s land-speed racing or improving the performance of an anemic motorhome.
(Editor’s note: Gale Banks knows how to make power, whether he’s land-speed racing or improving the performance of an anemic motorhome. Light-duty diesel truck engines are a big part of Banks’ business, so we asked him about ...
Read moreEngine Builder Does It Diesel
Could performance cars like Corvettes and Mustangs and others be powered by diesel engines in the future? They not only could be, but they would be if Gale Banks had his way.
The Banks Engineering aftermarket products are clean, socially conscious,’ owner says in 49th year.
Could performance cars like Corvettes and Mustangs and others be powered ...
Read moreDiesel Power
For Decades, Fringe Hot Rodders Have Been Predicting a High-Performance Diesel Revolution. It Turns Out They Were Right. Expect Diesels to Be Smoking Musclecars at a Track Near You.
It’s like an eyewitness account of Jabba the Hutt showing up to an NFL training camp and running the 40 in 3.9 seconds. Poppycock! Aside from being ...
Read more23.6 MPG from a Truck that Runs 222 MPH!
OK, you haven’t heard from me in a while and I’m going to use the same excuse as everyone else; Power Tour, blah, blah, blah. But since I am doing so, I would like to continue my theme on fuel economy with a report from the Power Tour. As you know, we took five vehicles ...
Read moreAir Travel Hell: Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour (Pre-Tour)
4:44 a.m.
Okay, the trip stared off badly when the shuttle van that was supposed to pick me up at 4:00 a.m. hadn’t arrived by 4:30. When I called, they told me, “oh, our driver just now told us he was experiencing vehicle trouble…” Great. What about my ride to the airport?
The shuttle company called a ...
Read moreA Trip To The Toy Shop
One of the things that I like doing sometime during the workweek is to wander through the Banks Race Shop. It is really an amazing place. I can’t think of any other place in the world where I could find high-flow intake manifolds for diesel engines being developed, turbochargers being mounted on a V-12 tank ...
Read moreBanks Readies for 2004 Bonneville
The Banks Race Shop makes preparations to break its own diesel truck land speed record at Bonneville
Some years ago, I had a photo assignment at Willow Springs Raceway to shoot a new 904 Porsche with a 911 engine replacing the original, damn-the-cost, four-cam, bevel-drive unit. As an on-again, off-again Porsche enthusiast, I had convinced myself ...
Read moreEngineering: Banks Runs for the Records
Project Sidewinder’s goal is to break the Land Speed Record for any pickup, any class, gas or diesel…
En_gi_neer_ing \ “en-je-‘nir-ing\ n: the practical use of science in industry, building and manufacturing.
Driving out and onto the Bonneville Salt Flats one imagines suddenly being placed on a polar ice cap. The landscape is white like frozen snow, ...
Read moreBanks At Bonneville
The dramatic story behind the creation of the Banks Sidewinder and its record-shattering run at Bonneville
Hey, you out there in Illinois, South Carolina or (heaven forbid) Texas; have you ever dreamed of going to the Bonneville Salt Flats — going really fast and setting a record? This is a good, clean, honest car guy’s dream. ...
Read moreSideways Into the Record Book
Banks sets new world speed record with the Sidewinder diesel pickup…
“I’ll kick your ass on straight diesel”
217.314 Miles Per Hour
Quick Specs:
Engine type: 5.9-liter 1-6
Turbo boost: 48 psi
Max output: 735 horsepower
Max torque: 1300 lb-ft
Think you have a fast pickup truck? Are you convinced the big brute in your garage is at the top of the food ...
Read moreGale Banks Engineering
Winning Systems for Trucks, SUVs & Motor Homes
Although Gale Banks Engineering is one of many companies making performance exhaust systems, it takes a “systems approach” to improving horsepower, torque and fuel mileage for a niche market that includes gasoline- and diesel-powered light trucks, sport/utility vehicles and motor homes. Banks offers a variety of upgrades that ...
Read moreFlat Out on the Salt
Inside Gale Banks’ 200-MPH Dakota Land-Speed Record Holder
Gale Banks wants to change your mind about diesel engines-and he’s going about it in a pretty spectacular way.
The Dakota pickup you see here was clocked in excess of 222 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats. In doing so it set international speed records for production-based pickup trucks. ...
Read moreBanks Sidewinder Rattles Bonneville
Project Sidewinder’s goal is to break the Land Speed Record for any pickup, any class, gas or diesel…
Banks Sidewinder: The Inside Scoop
The Anatomy of the Sidewinder
Gale Banks is known for producing performance power systems for both gas and diesel engines. Banks engineering’s reliable performance products are tested and proven at the Bonneville Salt Flats, where ...
Read moreHoly Smokeless!
Here’s one for the run-whatcha-brung record books. And we do mean record books. Last October 17, with the Bonneville Nationals World Finals already well underway at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, the crew from Gale Banks Engineering pulled in after driving all night from their headquarters in Azusa, Calif. They unhitched the trailer from their Dodge ...
Read moreBanks Sidewinder: The World’s Fastest Pickup!
Gale Banks Engineering’s Project Sidewinder is the fastest pickup truck on the planet. And it’s a diesel!
Don’t tread on this snake. Gale Banks Engineering’s Project Sidewinder is the fastest pickup truck on the planet. And it’s a diesel!
Sidewinders are well known for their unique form of locomotion. These venomous predators travel quickly and efficiently over ...
Read moreSee Sidewinder Run
Seems like hardly a week goes by that we don’t have something new to tell you about Project Sidewinder. This one will be short.
The news is that we had a video crew at Bonneville to capture all the action and sounds surrounding our record attempts, and you can now sample it on our Sidewinder web ...
Read moreBanking on Power of Diesel
Gale Banks’ goal is to push his diesel-powered Dodge Dakota to speeds up to 210 mph at the World Finals at Bonneville Flats in October.
AZUSA — Gale Banks hopes that in five weeks, he’ll be driving the fastest sport pick-up truck in the world to work daily.
Banks is president of Banks Engineering, an after-market ...
Read moreDiesel Land Speed Record — Goal of Project Sidewinder
210+ mph in Dodge Dakota … illustrating diesel as a performance engine … 600 hp out of 5.9L
With an eye on a new diesel land speed record, Gale Banks Engineering has developed the Cummins-powered project Sidewinder Dodge Dakota. The attempt at the record will be during Bonneville Speed Week this August, as well as the ...
Read moreWhy Diesels Make So Much Torque
For those used to gasoline engine torque numbers, diesel torque verges on the unbelievable.
Most competitors at Bonneville aren’t street legal, and most arrive on a trailer. Project Sidewinder drove in pulling a trailer!
The Banks Project Sidewinder, a Dodge Dakota pickup fitted with a modified Cummins 5.9L (359-cubic-inch) in-line six-cylinder diesel, made 1300 lb.-ft. of ...
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