June « 2005 « Banks Blog - diesel performance

Running After the Ice Cream Man, or Picking up the Sidewinder

by John Espino

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005

Remember when you were a kid and you heard that sound? You know, the sound that could motivate the dead to rise and you to drop whatever you were doing and run like hell screaming with whatever coins you could find clinched into your tiny hands? It was a melody that seemed to carry through the air even from miles away and could interrupt anything that was going on in your life at the time making you swing your head it the direction it was coming from. Yeah… that sound: the Ice Cream Man’s theme. It wasn’t the same theme every time and there were different vehicles, some yellow and some white… but they all had the same wonderful junk. Where else could you get an ice cream with gumballs for eyes for one hand and a giant Pixie Stick for the other hand? Ah, the rush.

Anyway, I can honestly say that vision is the only thing I could use to describe the excitement that quickly spread at the Bosch Technical Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan when Jim and I arrived to pick up the Sidewinder after the DCX Tech Fair. As we fired up the engine its sound traveled through the plant like the Ice Cream Man’s theme, pulling people from their desks and stations. We had a long drive ahead of us traveling from Michigan to Chicago so we let the Sidewinder warm up for a while, and the crowd grew. The Bosch folks were genuinely excited to see the truck. Good. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see the people who are responsible for some of the most advanced automotive systems on the planet impressed to see our “little engine that could.” These folks are our peers, and partners in our upcoming Duramax race efforts. For them to be that thrilled says a lot about what we do, and what we can accomplish together.

Wait till the Type-R is done. We might have a riot on our hands.

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Tags: Banks Sidewinder
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Time Travel or Power Tour Epilogue

by John Espino

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005

And so here is yet another late entry in my log of blogs. Let’s set the clock back… back… back… to June 8th…

… So this is my first time flying Southwest… and I have to tell you it ain’t bad. Oh, I’m sure that if it was packed like my flight to Milwaukee I would have much more to say. But hey, airlines don’t always smash as many folks as they can into a tiny plane like it was a dare or something like that… do they? The thing I thought was funny was that there are no assigned seats on Southwest, and it was every person for themselves. What a hoot it was to see everyone running to be first in line. I even got caught up in the rush. Hah… that little old lady never knew what hit her.

Well, if someone were to ask me if the Power Tour was worth it I’d have to answer “hell ya”! Where else could you go where there is a sea of pure power on four wheels, with some of the friendliest folks around? I mean it, not a jerk among them. The best part was that they were totally accepting of us and our vehicles, and let’s face it… we were the invaders. When you think of “hot rods” you don’t really think of a 4X4 with a diesel engine in it, but truth be told the times are a changing. Our mini fleet were hot rods in every way: they were over kill, flashy and could spin the tires till the rubber became molten shards of rage. The difference between our versions and the traditional idea of a hot rod is that you can haul lumber, groceries, a TV and the family… all at stupid speed. Yeah! Of course, if you’re not careful in ours you may eventually run over a Chrysler Crossfire or something (whistles innocently).

There’s something else I learned on my travels: some of the states we went through aren’t allergy friendly. Chicago and Milwaukee both looked as if there was a horrible simultaneous accident on every street involving chicken trucks. I’ve never see so much junk floating through the air for so long! Sneezing for days… what a drag.

And now here we are in the futuristic time of the present…

Anyhow, it’s good to be home and back at the grind. Hopefully I can get caught up with my blogs dazzling you all with wisdom, insight and dumb laughs.

… one can only hope.

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Tags: Power Tour
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What a Long, Strange Trip its Been

by Tim Gavern

Tuesday, June 28th, 2005

Throwing a bunch of guys together for a seven day, 1,700-mile tour is bound to have its ups and downs. This sign found in Joe’s Crab Shack in Kissimmee, Florida on the last day of Power Tour says it all. The merry bunch of Banks employees (and journalists) that traveled with us now share a common bond and many memories that will last a lifetime.

We did the ‘long haul’ with virtually no problems to speak of and the 2005 Hot rod Magazine Power Tour was a great success. It was an excellent way for Gale Banks Engineering to meet its customers and make new friends and champions for our current and future products.

I’ve gotten e-mails and calls from many of the great people I met on tour since getting back to the office. Many new business and personal relationships have begun as a direct result of our being on tour. We look forward to next year’s Hot Rod Power Tour; hoping it will be even bigger and better. But, just how do you top five high-performance trucks doing the long haul? That’s one we’ll have to figure out.

Here are photos of the five Banks trucks on tour. These images were taken in the beautiful state of Illinois on the drive between Springfield and Indianapolis, Indiana on the second day of driving. I shot these photos hanging out of the passenger seats of the trucks by my seatbelt.

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Bosch DCX Tech Fair or “Drive Sample Vehicles Like You Stole Them!”

by John Espino

Friday, June 24th, 2005

I know… it’s been a while since I’ve written, but I’ve got a good excuse. No, really… I do. See, I went on the Hot Rod Power Tour and before that, Bosch’s DCX Tech Fair. Vehicles, meetings, logistics, details and way too many “what ifs” make Johnny a dull boy. It’s as if I’ve been a cross between the proverbial one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest spliced with a chicken with its head cut off. Sort of a one-legged chicken-man with no head trying to kick some butt if you will. See the problem?

Anyway, after all the pre-event preparation, my first tour of duty was the tech fair that I mentioned earlier. The DCX in the title stands for Daimler-Chrysler (what’s the “X” for?) and it was held at the Pontiac Silverdome’s parking lot which is just around the corner from the Chrysler’s headquarters and support buildings in Michigan. Our partners and friends at Bosch put this little shindig together to showcase some of their technology that’s available to O.E. manufacturers for use in the build of their vehicles. A big part of it was Bosch’s diesel systems and a ride and drive in some of the most advanced diesel powered passenger vehicles available today (most of which aren’t sold here in the states). So, why show something that I can’t buy here? Simple, it’s one way to get the automakers thinking out of the box and forget the yucky memories of the bag of crud Olds engine that resonates in so many of their minds. These vehicles are quiet, get great mileage, have enough power to accelerate the vehicle so quick that you feel like you were punched in the kidneys… and make you smile like a little school girl about it. Slick and guiltless power that is on tap whenever you want it… from a diesel, and all with the creature comforts that one has come to expect from today’s modern automobiles. Vehicles as small as the .8 liter Smart (yes… that’s not a typo) to sexy sequentially-turbocharged BMW 5 Series were all on tap for a romp through the course in the parking lot.

Joining the troops on the field was our Sidewinder All-Terrain Dodge Ram, which was really just for display. Or was it? Seems that the folks who visited the Bosch event all wanted to do one thing first before they drove the cars… drive the big red truck. So, who am I to disappoint executives who we’re trying to impress? “Let’s go for a ride” I’d say, and indeed they did take it out for a drive… like it was stolen. I felt like I was in the movie Smokey and the Bandit riding along with power the mad fiends at the wheel. Tire smoke, squeals and the deep tone of the exhaust were what I experienced with every test drive along with the foreground sliding from left to right. One crazed individual even started to drift the truck! For a raised truck with off-road tires it took every bit of punishment, and triple dog-dared them to do something worse. At the end of each ride the driver spilled out of the truck with that kind of grin that tells you they got more than they bargained for, and loved it. Of course the other cars were next on the list of conquests.

Did we convince them? I hope so, because while our Ram is a kind of super truck, the other samples there were no slouches, all of which were stock production. We need vehicles like these, so the power hungry tenant in all our brains can get along with the conservative tree hugger who resides there. Who’d imagine that Felix and Oscar could ever get the chance to live in peace and harmony.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that the Sidewinder Dakota was there on display as well. “Did anyone get to drive it?” you ask. Ahhhhh, no… not so much.

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Tags: DCX Tech Fair, Hot Rod Power Tour
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Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour: A Huge Success!

by Tim Gavern

Wednesday, June 15th, 2005

Perhaps you’ve noticed the lack of blogs from all of us during Power Tour? The days went by like lightning. There was, literally, no time to blog. Here’s how our tour went.

Day one:
Wake up (5:30 a.m.); shower; shave; meet in hotel lobby (7:00 a.m.); quick breakfast (7:15 a.m.); schlep bags to the truck-of-the-day (8:00 a.m.); drive to event city (usually around 300 miles); park truck at booth (2:00 p.m.); get swarmed by gawkers (2:01 p.m.); talk to people about Banks products (2:01-8:00 p.m.); pack up trailer (8:00 p.m.); eat dinner (9:00 p.m.); sleep (10:30 p.m.); zzz

Repeat six times.

Our idea to show the hot rod community that diesels really ARE hot rods, worked. Banks “train” was the talk of the Power Tour. Everyone loved our big red trucks. They were, quite possibly, the most photographed vehicles on tour.

We made many new friends. But, more importantly, we made many diesel “believers.”

Of course, we all came back to big piles of paperwork on our desks. More when the piles are a little smaller.
Your faithful,
“Corporate Blogger”

The Banks “Long Haul Gang”
Shown from left
Jerry “Chill” Neilsen (Covering the tour in a totally laid-back manner for Turbo Diesel Register)
Pete “Tour Manager” Treydte (Lucky we had him running our show or we’d have been scre#ed. Seriously.)
Rick “Get those engines in the trailer” McConnell (”Don’t make me get my whip.”)
Thomas “Are you going to buy that?” Boardman (Our long-hauling salesperson, who really is a nice guy. Really.)
Jon “almost long hauler” Whiteley (Our Duramax flying, loud Squizz XM playing, fix-it-while-it’s-driving mechanic.)
Jim “I’ve been on the road for 17-days” Jensen (Our other fix-it-on-the-road mechanic. “Hey, is that all the food that comes with this order?”)
Tim “I gotta pee” Gavern (”Sorry, it’s all that coffee.”)

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Tags: Hot Rod Magazine
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Air Travel Hell: Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour (Pre-Tour)

by Tim Gavern

Saturday, June 4th, 2005

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 cab for me and my $45 trip to the airport wound up costing $68.30. The shuttle company is going to pay me the difference. Yea - there’s money I won’t be seeing again anytime soon. The only saving grace was Richard, my taxi driver, was also an Armenian philosopher. I got an Armenian history lesson on the drive to the airport. Interesting.

6:00 a.m
I made it to the gate with only a few minutes to spare. I glanced out the window at the plane and exclaimed to my traveling partner, John Espino, “Hey John, check out the antique we’re flying on. Oh, sh*t.”

Our jet, an old 737 or something, was built in the era of, “How many people can we cram on this plane.” Of course, I always sit in the back (when a plane crashes, the tail usually breaks off and sometimes there are survivors are in it…). I was one seat from the last row and was squashed in at the window (I’m 6′4″ tall. I literally couldn’t move).

Then, I met, “Cole.” Cole is the one-year old that got the seat directly behind me. Cole’s Mom hooked up his car seat into the plane’s seatbelts and Cole’s little feet could just touch my seatback. He danced the whole way from Los Angeles to Milwaukee. He screamed the whole trip, too. It wasn’t a mad scream. He just liked to scream.

Across the aisle, John Espino had gotten shuffled around a few times and ended up in the middle seat of a three-seat row. John had his own problems. He tried to work on his laptop and ended up looking like a T-Rex (his description) with his little arms tucked into his sides. He finally gave up. I didn’t even pull my laptop out of my case. No point. I could barely fit in there myself.

Our antique jet did a pretty good job at flying, but the landing scared the ‘bejesus’ out of both Espino and myself. First of all, it took the entire runway to get the plane stopped. And the left wheel’s brakes seemed to grab better than the right, so the plane did a scary “S-pattern” all the way down the runway. Goodbye to you, plane.

5:00 p.m.
Setup at Miller field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was cool. The Hot Rod Magazine kick off wasn’t until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 4th, but there were already some early birds around on Friday afternoon. So, I took Banks’ twin-turbo “rat rod” shop truck for a little spin to wow the troops. That truck came out perfect. Kudos to Banks Race Shop. On the way back around the parking lot, I spooled up the turbos through a couple of gears and all eyes (and ears) were on it.

I talked to a couple of Banks customers as we were setting up the booth. One guy happily exclaimed to me that his Banks Six-Gun-equipped Duramax actually got two more miles per gallon on top of all the extra power! Right on.

7:00 p.m.
The Banks crew (minus two who were still flying) had a nice dinner at a German restaurant, called Mader’s in downtown Milwaukee. The food was exceptional. Thanks, Gale! Oh, and there was a little plaque next to our table that said, “Mario Andretti and Paul Newman ate dinner at this table on June 4, 1993.” That’s one day off from twelve years ago. How cool. After dinner, we all crashed back at the hotel. Good night.

Check back soon for more posts from Hot Rod Magazine’s Power Tour 2005.
Your faithful,
Corporate Blogger

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Banks Sidewinder All-Terrains are Ready to GO!

by Tim Gavern

Wednesday, June 1st, 2005

It’s been a real thrash for the past few weeks getting ready for Hot Rod Magazine’s Power Tour. You may have noticed the lack of new blogs recently. Sorry, but we’ve all been swamped. Imagine the logistics and man-hours involved in getting five trucks ready for the 1500-mile Power Tour…

Anyway, we now have all three 2005 Banks Sidewinder All-Terrain trucks finished and ready for Power Tour. Banks “Rat Rod” Shop Truck and Banks Bonneville Record-Holding Dodge Dakota are also ready to fly.

In fact, yesterday, the two Dodges left for Detroit to be on display at the Bosch-Sponsored Daimler-Chrysler Tech Fair at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, MI (Tues. May 24 and Wed. May 25) If you’re in the area, stop by and check them out.

I’ll make this post short and sweet since you can download and read the press release about the trucks that we’ll be handing out at each stop on the tour. Viewing requires Adobe Acrobat (adobe.com).

To download the 2.1mb high-resolution .pdf, click here:
(http://www.bankspower.com/ptprelease.pdf)

To download the 676k high-resolution .pdf, click here:
(http://www.bankspower.com/ptprelease2.pdf)

We hope you’ll come out and see all of the Banks trucks in person on Hot Rod’s Power Tour June 4-10. Log on to see if it passes near you: (
Sincerely,
Your faithful,
“Corporate Blogger