Banks has been building power since 1958, and diesel performance became part of that story when early GM 6.2L diesels proved they needed help. The fix was not just more boost. We found a workable turbocharged combination that made the engine more useful, with less smoke, lower exhaust temperature, and better fuel economy. That work led to the Banks Turbo 6.2 being sold through GMC dealers before factory turbo diesel pickups became the norm. The engineering approach is the same today: test in controlled conditions, verify the numbers, and build the parts with the people and equipment to do it right. Chassis dynos and engine dynos let us duplicate the street without wind, weather, or guesswork. From diesel pickups to military engines, the point has stayed the same for more than six decades—solve the real mechanical problem, prove it, and keep improving.
The video takes place at Banks Power headquarters in Azusa, California during the company's summer 2023 open house. The event is presented as a friends-and-family gathering with trucks, Jeeps, race cars, and activities spread across the campus, but its main attraction is the opportunity to see the facility and hear directly from Gale Banks. The visit is framed not as a product launch or sales event, but as a chance to walk through the engineering environment behind the Banks name and to connect the company's history with the people and equipment that still drive its work.
Gale Banks explains that Banks Power had just passed 65 years in business, dating from 1958 to 2023. He has been at the current Azusa facility since 1983, giving the site roughly 40 years of continuous use as an engineering and development center. Standing in what he calls North Engineering, he describes the area as heavily focused on electronics, while also noting that substantial hot testing happens there.
The facility includes a chassis dyno outside and two engine dynos nearby, with three additional engine dynos located in Banks Tech, where the company builds military engines. Banks emphasizes that live street testing is often limited by traffic, weather, and wind, all of which can distort readings. The dyno environment allows the team to duplicate street conditions in a repeatable way, including aerodynamic drag, while eliminating uncontrolled variables. He describes the chassis dyno as a double-absorber Mustang unit capable of testing everything from a soft Bonneville car to speeds up to 200 mph. He also notes that the dyno has been calibrated against OE dynos elsewhere in the country, giving him confidence in its reliability and accuracy.
Banks uses an example from Ford's pickup tuning history to illustrate why accurate dyno work matters. He recalls a period when Ford was engaged in a horsepower competition with Cummins and Duramax and released an initial soft calibration before later introducing a more aggressive tune. A journalist brought one of those trucks to Banks' facility, where the original tune was tested, then took the truck to a dealership for the updated calibration and returned for another run. According to Banks, the measured output at his facility came within two horsepower of Ford's published figure, which he presents as evidence that the company's testing methods were closely aligned with OE standards.
He says the same philosophy applies to the engine dynos as well, where Banks has also performed comparisons involving Cummins. The broader point is that the company relies on controlled, repeatable testing rather than anecdotal impressions. That testing discipline supports both electronics development and mechanical product validation, especially when the goal is to understand small changes in calibration or hardware with confidence.
Asked what the open house means after 65 years in business, Banks says the event gives employees a chance to show their families what they do. He describes it as part of a broader culture of recognizing the people who work there. In addition to larger events like the open house, he mentions a monthly Food Truck Friday where employees gather, talk, and eat together.
Banks is explicit that facilities and equipment alone do not create successful products. He credits the people who design parts on the computer, fabricate components in the fab shop, machine parts in the machine shop, bend tubing, and carry projects through production. He stresses that much of this work is still done in Azusa, California, and says he is committed to keeping as much as possible in the United States. The event itself reinforces that point by bringing together current employees, former employees, friends of the company, and long-time supporters who have used Banks products on their own vehicles.
The conversation then shifts from aftermarket performance to Banks' military engine work. Banks says the company currently supplies engines to Oshkosh Truck for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program. He states that Banks has produced about 22,000 Banks Neuromax engines and that the company had just won a second contract against Caterpillar. According to him, that award extends the program from 2024 through 2034, representing another 10 years of engine supply.
He describes the contract win as a competitive effort that required both engineering and sales work, including his own direct involvement in presenting the case for Banks' approach. The discussion underscores how far the company has expanded beyond its original performance roots. What began as a speed and power business now includes sustained, large-scale engine supply for military applications, supported by in-house testing and development infrastructure.
Banks reflects on how much the performance industry has changed since he started in 1958. He mentions two of his early heroes, Alex Xydias and Ed Iskenderian, and notes that both were still alive at over 100 years old. He had recently attended Iskenderian's 102nd birthday and points out that Isky was the first person ever to sponsor him with a cam and kit. That personal history places Banks within a much older generation of hot-rodding pioneers while also showing how directly connected he remains to the industry.
He says the company did not touch diesel performance until 1978, roughly 20 years after its founding. The turning point came when GM gave him pre-production 6.2-liter diesel engines and asked whether he could turn one into a marine engine with turbochargers. GM also supplied a couple of pre-production pickups with the same engines to support a Pontiac Firebird-related project he was doing with Pontiac.
Banks says those early diesels were gutless in stock form, and when his team initially tried to make them competitive as hot-boat engines with a pair of turbos, the engines could not tolerate that level of stress. Even so, the work revealed a useful operating point where turbocharging made the engines far more serviceable. He says the turbocharged version produced less smoke, better fuel economy, and lower exhaust temperatures than the naturally aspirated version, with positive effects across the board.
That development work led to what Banks describes as the first turbocharged diesel pickup truck sold through a dealership. He says the company beat Dodge to market by one year with a Banks-turbocharged GMC 6.2 diesel, sold before the Dodge Cummins arrived. The project grew out of discussions with GMC executive John Rock, who was trying to find a way to keep GM's diesel engine program viable at a time when Ford's 6.9-liter International Harvester diesel had captured attention and GM's diesel plant was reportedly operating at only 17 percent capacity.
According to Banks, Rock told him that GM either had to shut down the engine plant or find a way to make the existing diesel product relevant again. Since Banks had already been turbocharging those engines since 1982, GM knew the concept worked and, in Banks' words, did not see his systems showing up in their warranty expense. He took that as proof that the engineering had been done correctly.
The arrangement they reached was straightforward: Banks would warranty the turbo system, instrumentation, exhaust, and related hardware, while GMC would warranty the truck and sell the package through its dealer network of roughly 2,500 outlets.
The installation process was handled through a facility in Almont, Michigan, operated with the Rinke family. Trucks and Suburbans were built at Flint Assembly, shipped to Michigan, and fitted with the Banks hardware there. Banks insisted that the installers inspect the entire vehicle before delivery because he knew any unrelated defect, from windshield wipers to power door locks, might otherwise be blamed on the turbo system. He presents that attention to detail as essential to making the dealer-installed program work.
Banks says the GMC program generated substantial press coverage and helped demonstrate that a diesel Suburban could become both more usable and more enjoyable with turbocharging. He references period coverage describing the diesel Suburban as roomy, efficient, and comfortable for long highway trips, but lacking the quickness of a gasoline engine until the aftermarket turbo system was added. The system was available over the counter through hundreds of Banks dealers, and for new vehicles it could be ordered as a factory-backed option through GMC truck dealers.
He says the program continued through GM's transition from the 6.2 to the 6.5 diesel. Early 6.5 engines were not turbocharged either, but eventually they were. He also recalls a Motor Trend comparison involving the Dodge Cummins, the GM 6.5, a Ford diesel, and the Banks-equipped truck. In his telling, the Banks truck outperformed the others, though it did not post the very best fuel economy. Even so, he notes that the mileage was close enough that the stronger performance stood out more than any efficiency penalty.
Near the end of the conversation, Banks addresses the idea that he helped create the diesel performance aftermarket and holds multiple patents. He notes that some of the patents tied to his earlier diesel work are now more than 40 years old and have expired, but he continues filing new ones. He says that recent patents have focused on electronics, and he is also returning to oil-system development.
One example he gives is a patented method of controlling oil in the crankcase without relying on impact-profile scrapers. He describes it as a passive drop-serration approach that lowers oil temperature and recovers a small amount of horsepower that would otherwise be wasted slamming oil into rotating components. He says he is already working on a second-generation version even though the original patent has not yet expired. For Banks, that constant invention is part of what keeps him engaged. At 80 years old, he says the key is to keep learning.
He also makes clear that innovation at Banks is not meant to end with him. He says he deliberately involves younger engineers in the patent process so they can carry the work forward when he eventually stops showing up. The recap closes on that note: a company with deep roots in hot rodding and diesel performance, still centered on testing, fabrication, and invention, and still led by a founder who sees continued technical curiosity as the reason not to slow down.
