…The Banks Sidewinder Top Diesel Dragster. Raw Diesel Power!
Long, sleek, and blindingly quick, today’s high-horsepower, rear-motored dragsters are the ultimate racing vehicles. They’re designed, and driven to do only one thing: streak down a quarter mile dragstrip as fast as possible in the very least amount of time. Aerodynamically, these dart-shaped machines simply slice through the air like arrows.
Potentially one of the quickest and fastest machines ever to come out of the Banks Advanced Concepts Engineering enclave in well over a decade, this all-new Sidewinder Top Diesel Dragster is about as purposeful a racing machine as you can get.
Pared down to the basics, this is a set of four racing tires held together with a long, slender space frame of strong 4130 chrome-moly tubing, equipped with a powerful clean diesel V-8 engine sitting right behind the almost claustrophobic driver’s compartment that’s aimed at one thing: setting down the absolutely quickest/fastest quarter-mile ever for any kind of a diesel powered machine (ever). (period.)
Technically, of course, there’s just a bit more to the story …
The Banks Top Diesel Dragster represents a philosophy that encompasses the toughest possible component tests there are. The company ends up with a wider range of superior information, which, in turn shows the engineers and designers at Banks how to craft better products. The consumer benefits both in function and quality. The process is unending.
As one takes a look through the following list of components and how they are matched together remember that just about each and every component aboard this machine has already been on the line and seasoned in combat in one way or another. In this racing machine every component is expected to function as a team multiplier – – the sum of the parts adding up to more than the best possible marks that each could register separately.
At this level of competition there can be no weak links, no compromise, no question marks, no single component that “…should be good enough.”
That won’t fly here.
…Welcome to a world where compromise is a dirty word and where if the pressure ever left off, we wouldn’t have a clue as to what to do. At Banks our toughest competition has always been staring back at us every time that we look into a mirror.
With our new supercharged engine complete, it now moves into it’s new home… the Banks Sidewinder Top Diesel Dragster. With this new engine configuration, we are expecting to see 1500bhp @ 6500 rpm. It will be destroying pavement real soon so stay tuned, and for now enjoy these photos.
It is always nice to receive an e-mail in the morning show that someone just published an article about us. This time it was Street Muscle Magazine who published an article about our Dragster. They run a section on their site titled “What are you working on?” which features projects in process. This week, the editor ...
A small horizontal radiator topped by a shrouded electric cooling fan is used on the Banks Sidewinder Top Dragster. A very quiet, but very powerful, Stewart electric pump moves the coolant though the Sidewinder’s system. Hardly “exotic,” good old distilled water (from the local supermarket) with a bottle of Redline “Water Wetter” mixed in (just ...
The plan is to be testing in our 272″ Sidewinder Diesel Top Dragster mid-September. We’re running Blown with zoomie headers till we’ve found the best size blower and overdrive, then the zoomies go away and we add two large turbos. A turbo on each bank, and they’ll be blowing the blower, of course! The engine ...
We have designed a new Big Pin Stroker crank, a totally new rod bearing diameter and a new long con rod design, all for our new Banks 870T2B, Duramax V8. It’s our intent to use this improvement everywhere from NHRDA Top Dragster and Pro Stock Truck to Baja Trophy Truck, Bonneville Diesel Streamliner and Marine ...
Here’s some mug shots of our upcoming 7-liter supercharged, nitrous and water injected drag race engine.
Gale Banks
Gale Banks 870S Blown 427″ Duramax. A variety of Superchargers from a 4-liter Whipple Screw to an 8-71 GMC will be evaluated, the Whipple is shown.
Gale Banks 427″ Drag Dmax. The sound of the zoomies is like no Dmax ...
Giving back to the community has always been important to Gale Banks; so when Utah Valley University Associate Professor of Automotive technology Todd Low approached him at the 2011 SEMA show, Gale was all ears.
Giving back to the community has always been important to Gale Banks; so when Utah Valley University Associate Professor of Automotive ...
GM Duramax 6.6L LML engine gets SUPERCHARGED at Gale Banks Engineering
Gale Banks has always been known as a hot rodder, drag racer and automotive engineer. Over the past 45 years, he has created some unique and fast cars, trucks and dragsters that have set numerous drag racing and land speed records.
Gale was an early diesel ...
Gale Banks has already set drag strip records with the twin-turbo version of this Duramax engine, and now they’re swapping out the turbos for a supercharger.
Deep within the prototype building of Gale Banks Engineering lies an assembly room where some of the most powerful twin-turbo Duramax engines ever built were born. While most of us ...
The gang from Adam Carolla’s “CarCast” stopped by to see what Gale’s been up to since their last meeting. Lots going on … check it out!
Professor Sandy Ganz and Motorator Matt D’Andria make a visit to Gale Banks Engineering in Azusa, CA. Gale gave them a deluxe tour of his shop and showed just about ...
FOUR (!) NEW NEWS STORIES: The latest on the dragster; Senator Bob Huff is coming to Banks; upcoming Mickey Thompson event; Bosch technology expo
By John Espino
The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy around the Banks campus. There’s always something going on here be it project, product or event related. Starting this weekend there’s ...
Did we set any world records at Arizona’s Speedworld? Not quite. Was it still a successful outing? Most definitely. (And hey, the “National” record we set got us a trophy!)
By John Espino
Well, we didn’t set any world-records this time out, but the Banks Sidewinder Top Diesel Dragster held up rather well. In fact, we’d consider ...
With all systems checked, the dragster and all the race gear loaded in the trailer, we’re ready to make our mark on the dragstrip again…
By John Espino
There’s been little to report on the Sidewinder Top Diesel Dragster since this past Summer. Back then we had to withdraw from an event in Indianapolis due to mechanical ...
The “rail” leaves for test and tune, sets sights for 6-second “clean” run.
By John Espino
Last week I reported on the first fire of the new engine being used to catapult the Sidewinder Top Diesel Dragster down the raceways, the DRE “Stroker” engine. Bad weather prevented us from our “test and tune” session last weekend, so ...
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 ...
It might not look like it in these pictures, but, when these shots were taken, the Banks Top Diesel Dragster was only a few hours away from going into the trailer for its first trip to the test track.
Banks’ New Top Diesel Dragster AND Record-Shattering S-10 Pickup … Both To Compete!
Saturday, May 9 – “TS Performance Outlaw Drags” – Bowling Green, KY
2,500 Horsepower Unleashed: Banks’ New Top Diesel Dragster
AND Record-Shattering S-10 Pickup … Both To Compete!
Saturday, May 9 – “TS Performance Outlaw Drags” – Bowling Green, KY
Azusa, Calif. – – (April 20, 2009) ...
The beast hath reared its ugly head. Okay, it’s not so ugly. It is quite a beautiful sight. But that sound! I wanted to savor it, like a good cigar, or my favorite flavor of ice cream. The sound permeated every inch of the race shop.
April 2009, After a strong reception at its spectacular unveiling at the SEMA Show last November, the new Banks Sidewinder Top Diesel Dragster had to wait its turn in line while the Banks S-10 Sidewinder Pickup* went out to the starting line a few last times to finish up its development work with the powerful ...
Hey again guys and gals. I’m getting some questions as to how the stock intake manifold compares to the Banks Big Hoss manifold. I could go on and on about the details but I figured that a picture is worth a thousand words so here’s the comparison (if you can really call it that). I ...
There it was, all 19 (and change) feet of gleaming black carbon fiber: the Banks Top Diesel Sidewinder main body, floating there in space, 6 feet high with that really “speed hungry” looking snake on the side that seems spitting out a warning to watch out for some Duramax diesel-powered drag racing speed in the ...
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 ...
At precisely 8 a.m. the new Banks Sidewinder Duramax-powered diesel dragster stopped being a great idea, a few photos, some artist conceptions, a big stack of PO’s, a bunch of invoices, about a hundred faxes and an equal number of phone calls back and forth to Greenfield, Ind., and actually became a tangible object, a ...
