Project Overview
Just east of Los Angeles at Banks Power in Azusa, California one of those “projectiles” is being built. It's the Banks Sidewinder Top Dragster, and here’s the kicker, it will run on diesel fuel that anyone can buy at any local gas station.
Taking his diesel performance/efficiency program up multiple notches, Gale Banks is building a Duramax-powered, all-out, dragster to pursue the ultimate in function and to further investigate the upper limits of diesel horsepower, torque and reliability.
A Mike Spitzer race car with a stout top alcohol dragster chassis and carbon-fiber body panels is the horse for this newest and potentially “fastest of them all” wild ride. More than 26 feet in length, this new Banks Top Dragster will be powered by a 1,200+ horsepower Banks 6.6L Duramax diesel V-8.
High 6-second elapsed times and trap speeds in the 200-mph plus range are the target.
This project, begun in January 2008 at Spitzer Enterprises in Greenfield, Indiana, continues the legacy that Banks Engineering projects have been strived for over some five decades now. The creation, prototyping, testing, and the direct racing usage of performance components which ultimately leads to the company’s producing relevant products which consumers can install on their own vehicles.
In recent years, Banks has set the benchmarks in both high-performance and environmentally clean-tuning diesel engines many of which exceed 1,200 horsepower.
Since the 1980s, Gale Banks has been a leading innovator in the application of turbocharger technology. Successful turbocharger technology requires an understanding of how an engine takes air in, processes the fuel, and exhausts the by-products of that combustion. The more efficient the engine, the better it performs. Those three areas of mechanical understanding are the building blocks of the technology that eventually goes into products Banks Power offers to the automotive consumer.
The foundation of this latest Banks project is a Mike Spitzer-built chassis with a Top Alcohol Dragster back half and carbon-fiber body panels. More than 22 feet in length, this new Banks dragster will be powered by a 1,250-horsepower Banks 6.6L LMM Duramax diesel V-8. Six-second runs and speeds in the 200-mph range are the target.
This project, which began in January 2008 at Mike Spitzer’s Spitzer Enterprises in Greenfield, Ind., will continue the legacy that all Banks engineering projects have achieved for most of five decades: the creation, prototyping, testing, and racing of automotive performance components that ultimately lead to relevant products consumers can install on their own vehicles. In recent years, Banks has set new benchmarks in both high-performance and the environmentally clean-tuning of diesel engines that exceed 1,000 horsepower.
Since the 1980s, Gale Banks has been a leading innovator in the application of turbocharger technology. Innovation in turbocharger technology requires an understanding of how an engine ingests air, processes fuel, and expels exhaust. The more efficient the engine, the better it performs. These three areas of mechanical understanding are the building blocks that represent most of the products Banks Power offers to the automotive consumer.
