Well, it’s been a long time coming but we finally were there: the Miami International Boat Show. Well… we visited the thing for a few years in a row as a guest of General Motors, but this year we were on display and officially showing off our marinized Duramax diesel engine which we will be testing soon.
Reaction to our latest engine offering ranges from very favorable to excited, and we couldn’t be more happy. Three words were mostly used by many at the show to describe the engine: “interesting”, “brilliant” and “cool”. This engine offering has been a long time coming in both its availability and that it marks the return of Banks to the open seas. It surprised even us when General Motors first came to us a few years ago and asked us if we’d be interested in working on their first-class Duramax diesel engine. After many meetings (both face to face and on the phone) the agreements are signed and after a “momentary” absence we’re ready to make a “splash”.
Many don’t realize just how involved we once were in the marine industry, so it comes as a shock the house of automotive aftermarket scientists would know what we’re doing when it comes to producing a proper engine for boat usage. Those who are familiar with the fact we once ruled the seas… well they are the guys who “remember when” and couldn’t help but have that stupid smile on their faces.
You know the one, the kind that a boy would get after his father hands him a book of matches on the 4th of July and says “take over lighting the family fireworks, you’re old enough.” Look at yourself in the mirror right now… Yeah, that’s the one!
Behind the engine in our booths was a “super-graphic” of some Banks marine history: ads, competition boats and milestones. Pretty awesome when you look at it, and there’s plenty more history that wasn’t up there. I mean come on, you can only put so much in a booth. Trust me, the years of experience are there… and that winning and powerful soul will be in every engine we build. Soon you folks will be treated to lots of videos of us building engines… and making waves. Stay tuned, there is way more to come!
There are certain moments that you remember from your youthful days that are so vivid that you can actually recall every detail of that point in time: what you were wearing, what something smelled like, etc. These events can be good, bad, important or just plain trivial. As for me I have many of those “scrapbook” memories taking up valuable space on the hard drive in my head, but one especially stands out in this day and age that we’re in.
I remember it was a Saturday morning in 1980 (queue the wavy video, go out of focus and play the harp music) and I was watching the rather horrible cartoon called “Blackstar” on the local CBS affiliate. Back in those good ‘ol days the television stations did their best to try to cram in a little education on Saturday mornings along with toy and cereal commercials that weren’t afraid of letting parents and children know that it was fortified with sugar, coated with sugar and had a magnificent prize in each box… which also was laced with sugar. They had a five minute bit (with no songs… unlike School House Rock on ABC) that ran during the commercial breaks called “In The News”. Although these were on multiple times during my cartoon worship time there was one that really caught my attention. The fuel problems, or simply the lack of said fuel, were still pretty fresh in my little fertile mind. I remember well the days of odd and even, long lines where you could sit for hours waiting your turn to fuel up, and green and red flags signaling if there was fuel or not at the pump.
1973 gas crunch
It wasn’t like months back where fuel was too damn expensive because people are guessing how much it’ll cost in the future (stupid!)… there just simply wasn’t enough. So when the reporter came on the air and said that there was a way to make fuel out of algae he had my full attention. What sounded like pure sci-fi was just so simple in all reality. I remember the report showing that massive amounts of algae could be grown and harvested extremely fast and when compressed (squished) it yielded an oil that could be used as a fuel. He didn’t say it, but he was talking about bio-diesel. One day soon… we would grow our own fuel, it would be cheap and we wouldn’t have to rely on any outside sources. We can start to plan the party and tell everyone to kiss off! Our days of oil dependency were almost at an end!
Check your calendars folks… it’s now the futuristic year of 2009 and we still don’t have that “green” fuel I was promised. It seemed so easy and the right thing to do, but just like the astro-base we were supposed to have on the moon (still a very bitter subject for me) it never came to be.
Yeah, that five minute deal made quite an impression on ‘lil Johnny to say the least. For a while there I remember talking about this great innovation that was coming soon to anyone who’d listen, but I couldn’t find any information on the subject anywhere. So I went to work at the local library (remember… this was in the ’80s and Al Gore hadn’t created the Internet yet) trying to find out about renewable fuels… and mind you I was ten. “Renewable fuels, what is that?” they’d ask. So frustrating! Anyway, when it was time for the science fair at my school I knew what I was going to be doing an exhibit on. The result of my report and display was taken as if I was a being from the future. Puzzled, teachers asked me for more information. I followed this project up the next year with my plant that screamed when you touched it (and registered that touch and the pressure of it on an oscilloscope, but that’s another story). Needless to say I got labeled as one of those “smart kids“, which didn’t do much for the ‘ol social life.
But yet I digress… let’s get back to the subject of bio-fuels, shall we?
These kinds of alternate fuel ideas are still around and have been explored more, but almost in secret as the general public doesn’t seem to be really aware of them. Posted below are some links worth checking out, like the reintroduction of the algae fuel (hell yeah!) and little microbes that eat trash… and poop out fuel. So whether it’s running microbe poop in the tank or stopping the pool man from cleaning up your next stash of fuel, our future can be green and clean. Now all we have to do is develop these technologies more… and stop the folks from guessing the cost of our current fuel so that we can get where we need to be: a crappy and slimy.
Azusa, California - - No, it’s not the Bayeux Tapestry, but perhaps it might be considered as the American motorsports equivalent of it.
It’s the colorful 63 and-a-half-foot long, five foot tall, timeline-history of Gale Banks Engineering that stretches a full 50 years and features over 400 illustrations that go all the way back to 1958!
In September of 2008 the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum announced the booking of a special exhibit entitled: “Banks Power … The First 50 Years”. The intent was to honor the pioneer high performance company and its founder/president with an exhibition of accomplishments in both the marine and automotive worlds.
The Banks organization has always prided itself on its heritage and legacy, in fact its promotional materials have often featured a basic timeline that traced the company’s strong history. For the 3,500 square foot Museum exhibit, it was decided to expand and expound on that concept in order to show more of the story behind the company.
The plan involved the use of one of the 60+ foot long cabinet walls in the Museum to start at the beginning and follow the progress of the Banks success story in strict chronological order.
And follow it, it does. From a one-man garage/shop in Lynnwood, California (set up to pay Bank’s college tuition at Cal Poly) to today’s multi-acre design, testing, and manufacturing campus facility in Azusa, California, which employs 200 people, and on to the honor of being named one of only five people in the industry to receive the prestigious Distinguished Service Award from the Automotive Hall of Fame for 2009*. Banks is the first person from the automotive aftermarket side ever so honored in the award’s 68-year history.
The end result must really be seen live and in person to truly be enjoyed. As the “fun” title of this release says it truly is: “0-50 Years in 63 ½ feet”. The story of a lifetime in pursuit of performance perfection in a little over 21 running yards of exhibition space.
Watching Museum visitors look back through the 50 years is nothing short of fascinating. They recall what they were doing, where they were, their own significant personal dates and places as they note the various points of interest along the timeline.
In addition to a beautifully illustrated timeline, the exhibit floor is “well-stocked” with 17 very significant, very real, complete engines, each representing a different phase in Banks’ seemingly endless quest for efficiency. Along with the gleaming engines are a number of significant race record holding vehicles that carry the Banks colors as well. Fastest, quickest, first, winningest … You name it, doubtless one the racing machines on the floor will have done it!
The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (except Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day)and is located right at Gate 1 of the Los Angeles County Fairplex grounds in Pomona, California.
*The actual Distinguished Service Citation award is a crystal obelisk that’s on display at the “Parks” as part of this exhibit. It has taken a special place of honor at the beginning of the timeline right next to the only trophy that has ever sat on Gale Banks’ desk, a modest little award for an eclectically-controlled robot that got 1st place in the 1958 Lakewood High School Science Fair. The idea was to sort of “bookend” the first 50 years of Banks Power and point toward the future at the same time.
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 do need to point out here that these are for hardcore engine builds ONLY. This is for you guys wanting 1000hp+ without having to run 100psi of boost. This isn’t something you can bolt on in an hour for your daily driver. These parts are straight off our drag race/road race trucks.
Ok, here are some shots of the stock intake manifold as it sits on the truck. This is where the boost tube connects coming out of the intercooler:
duramax stock intake manifold
All of the air has to pass through the above assembly just to reach the cylinder heads. But trust me it gets worse. After the air gets to the inlet tube the first restriction it reaches is this one:
This is the inlet tube that attaches to the intake “bridge that connects the two halfs of the engine together. You can plainly see the extremly sharp bend (almost 90 degrees) and below you can see the very sharp diameter change:
It’s also not very large to begin with:
After that the air reaches the “bridge” where it runs straight into a wall:
But it still gets worse. Here a side shot if the inside of the intake “bridge” What your seeing here is the flange inside the bridge that supports the intake tube. The air actually has to make a 180 degree turn just to get around it. It’s almost like the incoming air has to stop and ask for directions:
But still, it gets worse!! Here’s a shot of the chamber where it attaches to the head. It also begs the question “How expensive can a bolt be?” The answer is “It depends on weather or not it falls out”. If you look inside the opening, lower right corner, you can see one of the bolts that holds the chamber on. It’s actually inside the chamber. You can also see that where the bridge meets the chamber the air runs into yet ANOTHER wall:
Here’s a shot of the inside. Both chambers are totally different shapes which will greatly cut down the air delivery to the ports. You can also plainly see how small the stock air intake chamber port actually is. Remember that the Duramax engine has 2 ports per cylinder and all 8 ports have to get their air through this little thing:
The Banks solution? Get rid of all of it:
banks duramax manifold
Here is 1/2 Banks 1/2 stock on the engine:
half of a banks diesel engine
This manifold does away with ALL of the factory short comings. It has individual intake runners (2 per cylinder), a much larger intake area, very smooth transitions from the chamber to the port, they’re o-ring sealed, and has a drasticly higher flow rate over stock. This design will allow you to deliver far higher volumes of air to your cylinder heads (and take better advantage of your port work) without having to run sky high boost pressures.
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 very near future.
The rail on the wall with the new Banks Marine Diesel Engine in the foreground
When you have a 276-in wheelbase Top Diesel Dragster sitting in the middle of a race shop, even one as “roomy” as the Banks shop, it sort of dominates the scene a little.And of course, most of the time that race cars are in the shop, they have their outer skins off so the engineers, designers, and technicians can get at them, doing the endless tasks that are part and parcel of the building and constant grooming of modern race cars.
It’s often said that the best racing machines are only ever fully assembled just an hour or so before the race that they’re in.That’s quite true, and the new Banks Top Dragster is no exception to that rule.As an example, even though this trans-200 mile-per-hour in the quarter mile machine is still under construction, the one-piece main bodywork has been off and on at least twenty times since it got here.Until today, each time it was carefully lifted off the chassis and then laid down on the floor near the chassis.
Everyone in the shop was, of course, quite careful to sidestep the (very) expensive piece of carbon fiber sitting there on the floor and no one, but no one rested any tools, coffee cups, or even a comic book on the long flat surface that made up most of its near 20-foot length.After a while that got a little old.
And then someone, some bright visionary, who’s name is lost to memory right now said, “Why don’t we make some brackets and hang that thing on that nice clear wall over there, it’ll be out of our way and look great at the same time!”
Whoever said that … Thank You!
And that big thank you is because the race shop now has a wonderful “wall hanging”, and that very valuable piece of carbon fiber coachwork with that big old sidewinder on it is now well and truly out of harm’s way.
Of course the best part of it being so prominently displayed is that it just reminds everyone of the task at hand: putting Banks into the lead on the racetrack, on the sales floor, and in the hearts of our many fans and customers.
Gale Banks himself just arrived. As you can imagine it didn’t take long for the group of people looking at the truck to immediately start talking with Gale. I have to admit that working for Gale Banks is a little strange, but in a good way. Growing up, my father, an old school hot-rodder himself would talk about him all the time. He would tell me how fast his engines were, how many world records he had, show me articles in Hot Rod magazine about him. Heck he even had one of Gale’s early twin turbo systems for our boat, and now I work for “the man” himself. At first it was really intimidating even speaking with Gale, but, contrary to what some may say, he’s not arrogant nor “stuck up” and actually very easy to talk to. Right now he’s talking with the calibration engineer about what tuning to load into the S-10 next. The crew starts by changing out the nitrous jets and altering the fueling program. While Gale understands all of the changes being made backwards and forwards it’s way beyond me. The basic explanation is that the engine can be stepped up quite a bit. The track has good traction, the wind is down, and Gale feels the engine should have no trouble being pushed a little.
It’s time for our second run of the day and Wes pulls the truck back into line. It’s time for the finals however so, rather then go down to the staging lanes we take a seat in the stands with everybody else and watch the other racers. After about 20 minutes or so we see the S-10 move up to the starting line, but wait, what’s this? The rat rod is in the next lane! Cool! I’ve wanted to see this thing run all day! Both vehicles do their burnouts and stage. Something seems a little off though. I hear the S-10’s Duramax engine rev up but the starting lights aren’t moving. Several seconds go by before the light goes green and both the S-10 and the rat-rod launch off the line. The S-10 lays down another 7.83 second run at 177 miles per hour. That’s a new NHRDA record! We walk back over to the pit area to check the truck out.
Wes and the S-10 are back in the pits and the crew immediately takes the lid off the transmission cooler box. On a normal run the ice that’s packed into the cooler box becomes hot water, but on the last run it became super hot water. Gale explains to me that the auto start must have been turned off on the tree. Under normal drag racing conditions, after both cars have staged, there is a couple of second delay before the light goes green, but this didn’t happen. That was the reason for the abnormally long staging time, and that long stage time really heated up the torque converter. The crew begins to drain out the transmission fluid and replace it. The calibration engineer is changing the nitrous jets again and he and Gale decide to really push the engine on the next run. It’s time for run number three.
All weekend I’ve been watching this race crew intently. As this is my first time seeing it in person I wanted to learn all I could, and I’ve learned a lot. These guys have been busting their rear ends since we put the tow rig in park and they haven’t let up for two days. It’s all come down to this last run. They’ve already set a new NHRDA national record but they all, including Gale, feel they can do better. For the first time this weekend I’m actually nervous, mostly because I’m not sure what Gale means by “really lean on the engine”. Gale Banks and I are standing in the bleachers watching Wes pull the truck up. Wes does his burnout and stages. Most of the crowd in the stands isn’t just standing up, but they’re lined up at the fence. The light goes green and the mighty Sidewinder S-10 fires off the line harder and faster then I’ve seen it all weekend. Wes crosses the finish line and pulls the parachute. The timing tower lights up with an incredible 7.77 seconds and 180 miles per hour! Yet another NHRDA record! Nearly everybody around us is now looking up at Gale and clapping. It was an awesome run.
We head back to the pits. It’s taking a little longer than before what with all of the people congratulating Gale on a new national record. You’d think he’d be used to it by now; after all he’s been breaking national and world records longer than I’ve even been alive, but he’s still all smiles. Wes just pulled back in the pits and, he to, has a smile from ear to ear. It’s been a great weekend. I was able to come out with a great group of guys, I got to hang out with some great folks at the track, I got to watch a world class race team work on, and race, a world class truck, piloted by a world class driver. I even got to hang out with one of my childhood idols, Gale Banks himself. I still can’t believe I get paid for this.
It’s Saturday March 7th 2009 and we’re back at the SpeedWorld drag strip in Wittman Arizona. It’s time to go racing. Being as this is my first diesel only event I’m really not sure what to expect. Oh sure, I’ve been to some NHRA events before, but the only diesels there were in the parking lot and were hooked up to the race trailers. Here we’ve got both. Diesel trucks towing trailers loaded with, well, diesel trucks. Ok, not all of them. The crew from Texas Diesel Power just arrived with their diesel powered Funny Car, and another crew just showed up with a diesel powered “rat-rod”. I must admit both of those cars are so very cool, I’d love to go over and check them both out, but we have work to do.
For starters we need to get the Sidewinder S-10 out of the trailer (again), but at least we don’t have to unload everything else like we did yesterday. Now that she’s back up on the race stands the crew fires her up. Needless to say there’s a large crowd forming very quickly. Now, again, I’ve been to NHRA events before, and some, not all, but some of the crews there usually aren’t very happy when people start coming into the race booth. I check with the crew on their feelings on letting “civilians” come in and get a closer look. Our calibration engineer tells me that “Gale wants anybody and everybody to see this truck up close. As long as they aren’t getting in the way, you let them come on in and take a look. Let them take any pictures they like and answer any questions your able to”. Well now that’s just plain cool.
The crew is almost finished warming up the truck and I notice that several people are getting neck cramps from trying to look in without crossing some imagined line on the ground. The look on their face is one of shock when I tell them “Come on in, take a look”. Almost instantly out come the cameras. Pictures are being taken at a rate that would make any Hollywood celebrity jealous. Then, of course, here come the flurry of questions; and some of them sound like Banks is involved in some kind of government cover up. In less then five minutes I heard nearly a dozen theories on what kind of fuel the truck runs. I was asked everything from “are you running compressed natural gas?” to “You have to be using propane”, to “I heard you use some kind of diesel/alcohol/plutonium combination”. I can tell you point blank the only things used in the engine are straight USLD #2 diesel fuel and nitrous oxide and nothing else. I should know, I watched these guys like a hawk all weekend. In fact the crew from Texas Diesel Power were running low on nitrous themselves so we filled their bottle for them from our own supply. Our calibration engineer is giving us the thumbs up; all is ready, and its time to stretch the S-10’s legs a little. Driver Wes Anderson is back behind the wheel and he drives the S-10 over and gets in line. Interestingly enough the car in front of us is the Funny Car from Texas Diesel Power so he’s going first. This is going to be so cool!
The crew from Texas Diesel Power does their burnout. They stage the funny car but they seem to be having a little trouble getting their turbo to “light” properly. The green light comes up and the funny car takes off. About a third of the way down the track a loud “POP” can be heard followed by a lot of white smoke. I’m hoping everything is ok as the driver John Robinson gets over the finish line and pulls off the track. Wes is up next in the Sidewinder S-10. He does his burnout and stages the truck. I’m making a mental note to keep my jaw from dropping open again as he gets ready to launch. The green light comes up and the S-10 blasts off the line. Strangely I find myself not watching the truck but I’m looking up at the stands. There’s several hundred people watching the truck rocket down the track and every one of them is on their feet. Wes crosses the finish and the tower lights up with 7.83 seconds and 176 miles per hour just as the crowed erupts in applause. Hey, I guess they liked it. In minutes Wes is pulling back into the pits and another crowd is forming.
The funny car is back in the pits so I take a little stroll over to not only introduce myself, but to see if everything is OK with their Funny Car. I must say that the guys from Texas Diesel Power are some really good people. We spend a few minutes talking about their run and all, and it seems the loud pop we heard was their intercooler boost tube popping off. Not really a big deal and they should not have any trouble getting her back up and running. It’s never fun to see somebody break on the track so it’s a relief they don’t have to put it back on the trailer. I head back over to our pit area as I see there’s another dozen people standing outside trying to take a look at the race truck. Once again it’s a look of shock when I tell them “Come on in, take a look”. I’m starting to enjoy this.
Seven seconds. It doesn’t sound like a long period of time does it? Think about it for a minute. Seven seconds. It actually takes longer then seven seconds to even write out the words “seven seconds”. It takes me longer than that to unlock my truck, put on my seat belt, and start the ignition. But in the short span of just about seven seconds, the Banks Sidewinder S-10 drag truck has gone from a dead stop to over 180 miles per hour and is over a quarter of a mile away from you. I’m still putting on my seat belt.
It’s an obvious fact that the Banks Sidewinder S-10 is impressive. It takes talent, not only to engineer the mechanical parts, but the computer control systems, the engine tuning, and the nitrous control systems as well. It also takes some serious talent to drive this beast. I could go on and on about how quick it is or how fast it is. I could even try to describe to you how it sounds, or how the thumping of the engine can be felt inside your chest. The problem is that the Sidewinder S-10 is a lot like the Matrix; no one can be told what it is, you have to see it for yourself. So I set out to do just that.
The NHRDA second annual Desert Diesel Nationals would be our latest test for this amazing truck and her crew. The event took place in Wittman Arizona on March 7th 2009 at the SpeedWorld Dragstrip. We’ve been to this track before and made some really good runs, even setting the official NHRDA record at 7.87 seconds. Not to shabby considering it was cold and raining off an on, but that’s another story. I should take the opportunity to point out that I have never seen this truck in person before. Sure, I’ve read about it magazines and saw the videos on YouTube like many of you. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into though. We arrived the day before the actual event for a “test and tune” session. Here’s a little play by play of my first trip out with this hard working race team and one amazing race truck.
It’s Friday March 6th and we have the track to ourselves for a few hours. First the hard work, getting everything unloaded. I’ve been told the truck is “light”; let me tell you, anything that weighs the better part of 3000 pounds doesn’t feel very light, especially when you have to push it on and off the trailer. We’ve also got to get the gear unloaded, well, actually the crew got the gear unloaded I just tried to help where I could. Judging by how fast they’re going, they’ve obviously done it two or three hundred times. The guys have a specific layout of where to put what, and I had no idea what it was. It’s probably best to just stay out of their way. The truck is up on the stands and the crew is going to work.
The calibration engineer has started plugging in, not one, not two, but three laptop computers into the various ports scattered throughout the race truck. I’d be lying to you if I told you I had any clue how this truck is set up, but I can tell you that one computer is for the BankSpeed engine management, another is for the BankSpeed nitrous controller, and the third is for the data logger.
Our race teams crew chief just hopped behind the wheel of the Sidewinder, activated the fuel system, and the S-10 roared to life! Now I don’t mean that figuratively, I mean that literally. People in the next county are probably wondering what that noise was. I knew there was something up when one of the crew handed me a set of ear plugs. You don’t just hear the engine, you can actually feel it. The crew spent the next few minutes doing a full system check and warmed the truck up to its normal operating temperature.
Ok, now that all of the boring stuff is out of the way, it’s time for the fun part.
The driver of our little red S-10 is Wes Anderson. Now I can honestly say that he’s a far braver man than I. Anybody who’s willing to get behind the wheel of that monster deserves my respect. Wes is suited up and just hopped in the mighty Sidewinder and idled over to the staging lanes. I was surprised how quiet the truck was at even a small distance away; up close it vibrated the air so violently it felt like you had heart palpitations. I stood in the left lane with the race crew, while Wes did his first burnout of the day in the right lane. By this point one of the track officials had to tell me my mouth was hanging open and I was drooling on my boots.
Holy smokes! I’ve never been that close to something that powerful in my entire life and this was just the burnout. Wes staged the truck, waited for the green, and the Sidewinder shot off the line like it was fired out of a cannon. Wes’s eyeballs should have been bouncing off of the back of his head by this point. Then, almost as soon as it started, it was over. The timing tower isn’t turned on so the track official had to yell our times down to us, “8.11 seconds and 173 miles per hour” he shouted. Now here I am, the “new guy”, congratulating the crew on a great run. Our crew chief looks back at me with a “are you kidding me” kind of look on his face, “It’s only the first run” he says “it’s going to get better”. Better? Really? We head back to the pits so the crew can crunch on the numbers from the data logger and try again.
After Wes drove, yes drove, the truck back into the pits the crew got back to work. The calibration engineer plugged his small army of laptop computers back into the S-10 while the rest of the crew got to work changing fluids, refilling the nitrous bottles, checking tires, and a thousand other things that needed to be done. At the rate that they were working you’d think we were between rounds at a national event, not just a testing session. One of the first things they did was pull a plug under the right bed side. Upon removing it, a whole bunch of very hot water poured out into a catch bucket. The crew chief explained to me that this was once the ice that was packed into the fluid cooler box for the trucks torque converter. The Sidewinder S-10 uses a Liberty transmission and a Hughes torque converter. The converter takes the place of the clutch with this drive system. The issue is keeping the transmission fluid that’s in the torque converter from burning up while the truck is staged. No air-to-air cooler can keep up with the massive amount of heat generated by this engine and transmission combination so the crew constructed a sealed box to house the transmission fluid coolers. Before each run it’s packed full of ice, and by the end of each run only hot water remains.
It’s at this point our calibration engineer is telling me the tuning is a little too “fat” so he’s going to change it some and try again. Wes suits up again and he’s off for run number two. Once again I’m standing next to this monster during the burnout just in “aw” at what it’s capable of. At least I’m not drooling anymore. Wes stages the truck again, waits for the green, and the truck fires off the line again. I can’t help but compare it to an airplane launched off the end of a Navy aircraft carrier, but it doesn’t need a nuclear reactor and a catapult to do it. The track official is telling me my mouth is hanging open again, bummer.
Once again the timing tower isn’t turned on so the track official again yells down “7.91 seconds at 181.7 miles per hour”. I’m at a loss for words, it’s a diesel, its not supposed to go that fast! Driver Wes Anderson was impressed as well and actually pulled the parachute on that run.
Wes drives back into the pits and the crew pours over the truck again. I’m getting tired just watching them. All of the ice has been turned into hot water and the truck went through about a gallon of diesel fuel. Our calibration engineer is telling me that there is some slipping occurring in the middle of the track. It’s seems the track can’t handle the immense amount of horsepower the Sidewinder S-10 is capable of delivering. He tells me he’s going to take some power out and they’ll try again. The sun is starting to go down and the wind is still blowing, we also have some high clouds and it’s causing the tracks temperature to drop. This can make traction harder to find the cooler it gets. This will be the last run of the day.
Wes stages the truck for the third time today, waits for the green light, and he blasts off the line like it’s rocket powered! The track official sticks his head out of the timing booth again, this time with a big smile on his face, “7.83 seconds and 177 miles per hour!”, he shouts. The crew is all smiles at this point. That is this trucks quickest time today and it’s faster then the current NHRDA record, which was ours already. The next morning is race day and the crew is ready for battle. This is going to be fun.
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I remember it was a Saturday morning in 1980 (queue the wavy video, go out of focus and play the harp music) and I was watching the rather horrible cartoon called “Blackstar” on the local CBS affiliate. Back in those good ‘ol days the television stations did their best to try to cram in a little education on Saturday mornings along with toy and cereal commercials that weren’t afraid of letting parents and children know that it was fortified with sugar, coated with sugar and had a magnificent prize in each box… which also was laced with sugar. They had a five minute bit (with no songs… unlike School House Rock on ABC) that ran during the commercial breaks called “In The News”. Although these were on multiple times during my cartoon worship time there was one that really caught my attention. The fuel problems, or simply the lack of said fuel, were still pretty fresh in my little fertile mind. I remember well the days of odd and even, long lines where you could sit for hours waiting your turn to fuel up, and green and red flags signaling if there was fuel or not at the pump.
