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THE LENO TANK CAR COMES "HOME" TO BANKS FOR A CHECK-UP
In the fall of 2008 this magnificent machine came "home" to the Banks tech shop for a short, regularly-scheduled maintenance visit. Of course we are using the terms "regular" and "maintenance" with some relativity here.
As even the most casual observer would easily note, this bolide is an absolutely unique one-off that did not come with anything even approximating an owner's manual in the glove box (actually, it doesn't even have a glove box!). Be that as it may, it was just great to have this exciting vehicle back in the Banks Tech Bay, all 20+ gleaming feet of it, if only for a few days!
If you've been reading about this big silver bullet right all along, by this point you might have come up with the idea that taking a twelve cylinder, air-cooled, carbureted World War II-era engine, originally designed to haul a 30-ton military tank over hill and dale at a ripping 15 or 20 miles per hour, and making it into the centerpiece power unit of one of the most photographed, most outrageous, most spectacular sports cars ever to roll on the face of the planet was a bit of a long haul.
And you'd be very correct.
In a different way, but in all candor this project was as difficult a challenge as any that have been in the R&D shops at Banks, including the machines that have set world speed records, and broken many others.
Adapting twenty-first century Formula One V-12 fuel injection technology to an engine that was designed in the 1940's with toughness as the number one criterion was no easy task.
Posted by Doug Stokes on December 29, 200834 ENGINES
I just went out in the shop and counted for myself.
Thirty-four.
There are thirty-four engines presently taking up just about every spare square foot of the race car shop floor here at Banks. The crew has been pulling them out of storage for a couple of days now in preparation for a new museum exhibit that opens in Pomona on December 3rd.
I guess that I should have said, "Our exhibit," because the show at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum is actually entitled: "Banks Power, The First 50 Years."
Now you know the reason for all the engines. Going back at least forty of Gale Banks' 50 in the business, they are the living lexicon of Banks Power.
From the latest 1200+ horsepower twin-turbo diesel dragster engines to an early marine engine which was so good that it got itself legislated out of competition, they're all here, each representing the Banks heritage and that well documented corporate credo to do it better every time.
Posted by Doug Stokes on November 26, 2008Engineering & mechanics students visit Banks from Mexico...
Some 15 very eager students from the Centro Educativo Grupo Cedva in Mexico City recently toured the Banks facility in Azusa, California. They were given an up-close and personal look at many of the manufacturing processes: from design and prototyping, through production, right on to the boxing and shipping of the final product.
The young folks were in Los Angeles to participate in the annual “Formula SAE” event sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. While they were in southern California they took a little time out to show a curious crowd of Banks employees their entry in the formula car competition at the Speedway. Their cool little student-built single-seater featured a modified 600cc Honda motorcycle engine, all-independent suspension, motorcycle disc brakes, wide Hoosier slicks, on open cockpit, and sleek composite bodywork.
Posted by Doug Stokes on July 07, 2008
