There's a very good article on Buick Muscle of the 80's July /2007 issue. Lo and behold Gale Banks shows up again.
Actually the Project car Sunday Driver that he and Exec editor CJ Baker for Hot Rod Magazine built in 81 was a Twin Turbocharged V6 Regal Sports Coupe which produced 500 hp ran the 1/4 in 13.25 sec.
on street tires and no more then 2psi boost the most they could take off on without totaling annihilating the tires and causing them to break loose.
Buick asked Banks to build a clone as well as 4 identical TT engines. The 4 engine replicas went on a show circuit. Buick wanted to show off this twin turbo technology. So remarkable was they end result that They were asked by Buick officals to bring the car to the Mesa ,Arizona testing grounds so Buick engineers could study the Sunday Driver, where the car lived for 2 years. The car became the favorite of top Buick Brass.
In 1983 Buick fielded their own Indy Pacecar a Riviera convertable with a 4.1L you guessed it TwinTurbocharged. The similarity of Sunday Driver's and the Riviera's Twin Turbo layout was more then COINCEDENCE. They copied my Twin Turbo layout. Banks also believe the Sunday Driver was the PROTOTYPE for Buick's sinister Grand Nationals built between 84-87. With so much of Buick's top brasssampling the car at the proving grounds "could it be any different?" Banks asked" It just validated the hell out of doing a Turbocharged production car!"
Baker's final article on Sunday Driver Aug.82 Hot Rod seems tp foreshadow the upcoming GN, Sunday Driver proves the point even as gas quality decreases and engines get smaller, performance in the 80's is alive and well and that you can combine show, go and elegance in a single package." It too Buick just a couple years to catch up with the project car that Baker,Banks and company built. That's why we go fast with class because of guys like Baker and Banks and the Project car that lived at Buick proving grounds for 2 years...
Some nice pics in the article. Pic with Junior Johnson and his number 11 Mountain Dew Regal that DW drove to the Championship in 1981 and behind him the Sunday Driver TT Regal coupe and inbetween bothe cars Gale Banks leaning on of 4 TTV6 engines that Buick asked to have built up. About six pics of Banks working on the engine, believe it or not some of Ken Bell's techs helped assemble the engine. Banks had bumped up compression from 7.25:1 to 7.75:1 after it only pulled 439hp on the dyno. He upped compression swapped a hotter cam and installed Rhoads lifters, which he said improved idle vacuum and helped increase higher engine speed. lift and duration. The car could spin safely at 7200 rpm . Banks and Baker felt they could swap the stock 3.42 for 4.10's and still maintain decent top end speed.
Not bad for a 1981 model to be churning out 500 ponies seems like TODAYS production Muscle cars from the Big 3 the Vette ZO6, Viper, and GT 500 , 500 ponies is the Standard. Banks and his boys were doing that 26 years ago with our beloved Brick.
The article also goes on to tell about the Boy/Explorer Scout troop in 1976 that assembled the turbo system. The story is a couple of the engineers involved with this Turbo Pace car project were Scout troop leaders got this as a project for their boys. They had it running but it wasn't working right so Buick called Banks to Flint ,Michagan to work out the gremlins. When he arrived at Flint he found several problems, exhaust manifold pres.was about 3x's the boost pres.level, Banks said this motor should have beeen running backwards with those pressure numbers, Banks also noticed the spark plug wire insulation was way too thick looked like garden hoses. yeah the engineers said they were having problems with exhaust temps, they told Banks like 2100 degrees. Banks said you didn't need headlight to drive this thing at night as the motor was glowing. He helped them get back on track and massaged 300 hp out of it for them which is alot more then the standard 130-135 hp that come out of that lil V6.
Banks said you have to understand, although the 3.8LV6 got to be quite an engine this wasn't one of them. They matured during the 80's into a racing engine that even ran in Indy cars. The little V6 in it's mature form cam make well over 1000hp on gasoline, I've heard 1200hp and you have to remeber 3.8L is not alot of cubic inches.
Actually the Project car Sunday Driver that he and Exec editor CJ Baker for Hot Rod Magazine built in 81 was a Twin Turbocharged V6 Regal Sports Coupe which produced 500 hp ran the 1/4 in 13.25 sec. on street tires and no more then 2psi boost the most they could take off on without totaling annihilating the tires and causing them to break loose.Buick asked Banks to build a clone as well as 4 identical TT engines. The 4 engine replicas went on a show circuit. Buick wanted to show off this twin turbo technology. So remarkable was they end result that They were asked by Buick officals to bring the car to the Mesa ,Arizona testing grounds so Buick engineers could study the Sunday Driver, where the car lived for 2 years. The car became the favorite of top Buick Brass.
In 1983 Buick fielded their own Indy Pacecar a Riviera convertable with a 4.1L you guessed it TwinTurbocharged. The similarity of Sunday Driver's and the Riviera's Twin Turbo layout was more then COINCEDENCE. They copied my Twin Turbo layout. Banks also believe the Sunday Driver was the PROTOTYPE for Buick's sinister Grand Nationals built between 84-87. With so much of Buick's top brasssampling the car at the proving grounds "could it be any different?" Banks asked" It just validated the hell out of doing a Turbocharged production car!"
Baker's final article on Sunday Driver Aug.82 Hot Rod seems tp foreshadow the upcoming GN, Sunday Driver proves the point even as gas quality decreases and engines get smaller, performance in the 80's is alive and well and that you can combine show, go and elegance in a single package." It too Buick just a couple years to catch up with the project car that Baker,Banks and company built. That's why we go fast with class because of guys like Baker and Banks and the Project car that lived at Buick proving grounds for 2 years...
Some nice pics in the article. Pic with Junior Johnson and his number 11 Mountain Dew Regal that DW drove to the Championship in 1981 and behind him the Sunday Driver TT Regal coupe and inbetween bothe cars Gale Banks leaning on of 4 TTV6 engines that Buick asked to have built up. About six pics of Banks working on the engine, believe it or not some of Ken Bell's techs helped assemble the engine. Banks had bumped up compression from 7.25:1 to 7.75:1 after it only pulled 439hp on the dyno. He upped compression swapped a hotter cam and installed Rhoads lifters, which he said improved idle vacuum and helped increase higher engine speed. lift and duration. The car could spin safely at 7200 rpm . Banks and Baker felt they could swap the stock 3.42 for 4.10's and still maintain decent top end speed.
Not bad for a 1981 model to be churning out 500 ponies seems like TODAYS production Muscle cars from the Big 3 the Vette ZO6, Viper, and GT 500 , 500 ponies is the Standard. Banks and his boys were doing that 26 years ago with our beloved Brick.
The article also goes on to tell about the Boy/Explorer Scout troop in 1976 that assembled the turbo system. The story is a couple of the engineers involved with this Turbo Pace car project were Scout troop leaders got this as a project for their boys. They had it running but it wasn't working right so Buick called Banks to Flint ,Michagan to work out the gremlins. When he arrived at Flint he found several problems, exhaust manifold pres.was about 3x's the boost pres.level, Banks said this motor should have beeen running backwards with those pressure numbers, Banks also noticed the spark plug wire insulation was way too thick looked like garden hoses. yeah the engineers said they were having problems with exhaust temps, they told Banks like 2100 degrees. Banks said you didn't need headlight to drive this thing at night as the motor was glowing. He helped them get back on track and massaged 300 hp out of it for them which is alot more then the standard 130-135 hp that come out of that lil V6.
Banks said you have to understand, although the 3.8LV6 got to be quite an engine this wasn't one of them. They matured during the 80's into a racing engine that even ran in Indy cars. The little V6 in it's mature form cam make well over 1000hp on gasoline, I've heard 1200hp and you have to remeber 3.8L is not alot of cubic inches.
