Banks Diesel Power « Banks Blog

7 seconds - part 3

by Jeff Barker

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

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. blog_s10_e

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.

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Tags: Banks Diesel Power, Banks Sidewinder, S-10 Drag Truck
Posted in SEMA, Sidewinder S-10 Drag Truck | No Comments »

7 seconds - part 2

by Jeff Barker

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

Race day!

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. blog_s10_f2

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! blog_s10_h

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.

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Tags: Banks Diesel Power, Banks Race Shop, Chevy Duramax, S-10 Drag Truck
Posted in Sidewinder S-10 Drag Truck | 1 Comment »

Who am I?

by Peter Treydte

Friday, April 29th, 2005

I said in an earlier blog that I was a Ford guy. Today I think I am changing my identity a bit. I think I am starting to consider myself a Diesel guy. I drive a gas-powered F-150 every day and keep thinking about what my fuel costs are going to be this summer. I would sure love to have a small diesel-powered car to commute with. Unfortunately being in California, it doesn’t look like that will be available to me anytime soon. The only readily-available diesels in this Left Coast state are full-size trucks. I can’t quite justify the purchase of a diesel pickup right now, and even if I did, I don’t think I would be saving much in fuel costs. I am currently getting 14-16 MPG at a fuel cost of around $2.40/gal (and that’s optimistic), which works out to an operating cost of about 16 cents a mile. Our Test Group Manager commutes in a Duramax dually and reports an average of about 18 miles to the gallon. At a fuel cost of $2.50/gal, that’s a little less than 14 cents a mile. A savings indeed, but not quite enough to justify the purchase of a $40,000 vehicle in my situation.

Now what if there was a diesel-powered car for around $13,500 that got around 55 MPG? That brings us down to 4-1/2 cents per mile. Now we’re talking. That car is available in Canada. It’s the Smart car. We had an opportunity to drive one that Bosch brought to the states for show-and-tell. It was cool, but so far, it’s not available here. I say, bring them on! With that car, I would be a full-fledged card carrying Diesel guy.