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Who am I?
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.
Posted by Peter Treydte on April 29, 2005Shhhh... we're working on some future stuff!
A little while ago, I wrote in my first blog that we get our hands on some really neat, future stuff. A good example from the past was the powerplant for our Sidewinder Dakota truck. You know... that little red pickup that ended up smashing a number of speed records and went 222 m.p.h.? Well, that engine was a '03 common-rail Cummins that we just so happened to get in 2001 from the Cummins Skunkworks for our project.
Posted by John Espino on April 27, 2005My Weekend Romance
So my pal, Peter Treydte comes into the office this past Monday morning and loudly declares, "Hey Tim, you're no longer a diesel virgin." We all laughed. It's true though. I drove a bone-stock cherry red 2005 Ford F-250 crew cab 4x4 Power Stroke turbodiesel over three hundred miles last weekend. It was a great experience and one that truly changed any preconceived notions I had that modern diesels were still big, klunky and slow.
Posted by Tim Gavern on April 26, 2005A Trip To The Toy Shop
One of the things that I like doing sometime during the workweek is to wander through the Banks Race Shop. It is really an amazing place. I can't think of any other place in the world where I could find high-flow intake manifolds for diesel engines being developed, turbochargers being mounted on a V-12 tank engine and a one-of-a-kind diesel road race truck being built from the ground up... oh and by the way, just a few feet away is the world's fastest pickup truck powered by a Cummins ISB engine.
Posted by Peter Treydte on April 21, 2005Power Touring
A few of us here at Banks are stoked to be going on Hot Rod's Power Tour (http://www.hotrod.com/powertour) this coming June. I've been threatening to go on Power Tour since they started it. What is it nine years already? Anyway, this was the year I was going to do the long haul in my '63 Biscayne. Of course, I'd need to change its 4.56 gears to something a little more highway friendly. But, that's easy.
Posted by Tim Gavern on April 21, 2005Turbo Lover: Part One
Have you ever heard a sound that gave you goose bumps just by hearing it? Ever since I was a kid that magic tone for me was that of a turbine whine. To me it just sounds like power incarnate. I mean...what's more powerful sounding than a jet taxiing and taking off? That is the sound that suckered me into buying my first turbocharged car: the underrated Merkur XR4Ti. I like my vehicles to be different, and this one sure fit the bill. Aside from looking like the forbidden love child of Saab and a Ford Escort, it had a blown Pinto 2.3 liter engine that whined louder than a dentist's drill. Turbo lag was BIG, but when it finally built up the power its demeanor turned from that of a timid koala bear to a raging donkey and squished my unassuming passengers deep into their seats. Sweeeet! From then on I was bitten by the beast known as the turbo, and its venom went straight to my brain. The true journey to the Dark Side had begun.
Posted by John Espino on April 20, 2005Pay the Piper...or Hire Another Band
Just the other day, I was fueling my vehicle at a service station. While I was there, the station attendant emerged with a handful of numbers to change the posted fuel prices. He didn't change the gasoline prices, only the #2 diesel. It went up 4 cents per gallon. At that station, #2 diesel was then selling for 6 cents a gallon more than 91-octane premium gasoline, and 22 cents a gallon more than 87-octane regular gasoline. I remember thinking, that's nuts!
Posted by CJ Baker on April 19, 2005Diesel Hot Rods
I'm a typical hot rodder. I build hot car after hot car. And of course, every one of them has been gasoline-powered. What else is there?
Posted by Tim Gavern on April 19, 2005Giving Something Back
I'm sitting in my office waiting for the guys from WyoTech to arrive. This morning, I get to put something back into the diesel industry. I volunteered to work with WyoTech on the development of a light-duty diesel curriculum (with a high-performance overlay, of course).
Posted by Gale Banks on April 15, 2005Blue Oval Fever
I'm a Ford guy. I can't explain why, except to say that from the time I was a young kid I have always felt more partial to the Blue Oval brand than others. It could be because my dad owned more Fords than other brands. I was one of 6 kids, so we always had large vehicles. I remember going to church in an early 70's blue Econoline with a 3-on-the-tree shifter. I never got to drive that one, but I remember logging a lot of miles in it. It was replaced by a 1982 brown Econoline powered by a 289 V-8 with a variable venturi carburetor... not one of Ford's better ideas. This one I did get to drive. When I was a junior higher I convinced my dad to let me move the van from the street to the driveway to put it away for the evening. This became a ritual for me. My dad took me to get my learner's permit in that van and I went on my first real date in it. It was not what I would call a cool van either, at least not in the sense that van's were cool at some point in Americana. (Whoa, did I just admit that I was a "van guy"?!?) I also learned the importance of engine oil with that van. Did you know that the engine stops running after a while if it doesn't have oil?
Posted by Peter Treydte on April 15, 2005Beware the Blog!
"The Blog!" Blog this and blog that -- that's all I've been hearing for the past month. Up until recently I thought folks were talking about the anamorphic amoeba with the voracious appetite that terrorized a small town back in the '50s flick. They tried to stop it by burning it, shooting it and then blowing it up. Just about the only thing that'd stop it was freezing it. After all was said and done the thing grew from about the size of a pea to a giant glob.
Posted by John Espino on April 14, 2005Why a Blog?
My job title at Banks is, "Corporate Journalist." Pretty high falutin, huh? Not really. I'm just a scribe. I record a lot of what goes on around here. I document projects and vehicle buildups for corporate sponsors, provide info for magazine editors, write blogs, Blah, blah, blah.
Posted by Tim Gavern on April 14, 2005
