Detroit (Sept. 2, 2008) - With 50 years of experience building high-performance engines, Gale Banks is a legend in the business. Vehicles with powerplants from Banks Power have captured numerous national and world speed records over the past five decades.  In recent years some of his most interesting work has focused on diesel engines with an eye toward cleaner burning alternative fuels. 

Banks took time out to talk to Green Fuels Forecast during the pre-race activities for the Detroit Grand Prix over the Labor Day weekend.  During the 1970s Banks spent some of his time teaching advanced engine design, including turbocharging to graduate students at the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University). It was in the wake of the second Middle East oil embargo that diesel engines first began to get attention in North America. 

Part 1
In 1980, when Pontiac was preparing the third generation Firebird for launch, Banks was approached to prepare a twin turbocharged version that would attempt a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. GMC provided support trucks powered by a then new 6.2L diesel V8. Banks had already worked on a prototype version of the diesel V8 for marine applications, which never went into production.

"I've always like the concept of diesel in that it's inherently efficient," says Banks, whose racing teams have long been sponsored by Bosch. "So today we have something different going on. Today it's like the engine of the future is 110 years old. Rudolf Diesel's with the advent of Bosch electronics and wet fuel system componentry becomes the magic bullet for the future.

"That's because it utilizes technologies that exist and it utilizes a fuel infrastructure that exists and (the) harder you work the engines the more fuel efficient they become compared to gasoline."

Banks goes on to discuss alternative fuels, "you can use socially acceptable fuels, fuels which are made from waste products such as wood chips, weeds that grow in the desert, where you have a low carbon footprint establishing the fuel and a lower carbon footprint when you're burning it which takes us off the foreign oil dependency.

"Diesel isn't the only solution but it is the next decade to two decades a key solution."

Banks sees California as an "incubator of the automotive future" and from his base in Azusa, CA his team is working to demonstrate the capability of diesel engines in high-performance applications.

Since 2001, Banks has taken the idea of performance diesels and built sport trucks that have set a number of records both at Bonneville and in drag racing. Banks likens his method to the concept of the original Pontiac GTO, where a big engine was put in a lightweight car platform. But instead of a car, Banks used the mid-sized Dodge Dakota pickup with the Cummins diesel from the heavy-duty Dodge Ram to create his experiment, known as Sidewinder.

As a result, the Banks team improved the Cummins diesel from 393 hp to 735 hp, with more than 1300 lb-ft of torque. With the truck completed only days before the record attempt, the team put on street tires, loaded a trailer with spares and racing tires and drove the 700 miles from the southern California shop to Bonneville. The output of the diesel was more than enough to achieve a two-way average record run of 213.583 mph! Subsequent mileage tests on public roads yielded fuel efficiency of 21.2 mpg - better than any stock Dakota.

Part 2

Since that original Sidewinder, Banks Engineering has built other trucks including an S10 powered by a modified 6.6L DuraMax diesel V8. This drag racing pickup has over 1,200 hp and runs from 0-300 kph in 7.72 seconds. Banks is also taking a look at building a diesel powered NHRA Top Dragster.

The next goal is to get a diesel powered dragster to hit 200 mph in the 1/4 mile with a sub-7 second elapsed time. To do that, there is a 6.6L DuraMax running on the dyno right now making 1280 hp at 5,500 rpm.

Looking ahead, Banks is working on a number of new projects. While his vehicles already hold world records for diesel trucks, he wants to capture the overall land speed record for diesel vehicles. Banks recently retired a gas powered Bonneville stream-liner that ran over 400 mph.  Banks believes his team can build a new two wheel drive diesel stream-liner that can run 375-380 mph beating the current record held by the British JCB DieselMax at 328.767 mph.

He is also getting ready to modify a new clean diesel Volkswagen Jetta TDI to optimize the torque to power relationship. While traditional diesels typically have a nearly 2:1 torque to power ratio, Banks is building engines that will bring that closer to 1.5:1. This would allow lighter weight diesel engines and supporting structures, while maintaining the fuel efficiency advantages.

Currently, Banks has a diesel running on a dynamometer to test all the known diesel fuel types currently available, including gas to liquid and biomass to liquid, in order to determine which has the best properties for high-speed diesel engines. The Banks engineers are analyzing the combustion characteristics, including the heat release of the fuel to find the best combination of power and fuel efficiency.

Banks hopes the work underway in his labs will help accelerate the move from "a hydro-carbon fuel type to a carbohydrate fuel type." Algae-based biodiesel is another type of fuel that has Banks excited. Banks is also part of the panel of judges evaluating the business plans of Automotive X-Prize competitors.

Even after 50 years of building engines Banks has clearly lost none of his enthusiasm for fast machines.