Gale Banks

Gale Banks (born 1942) is an American hot rodder, drag racer, engineer and entrepreneur who grew up in Lynwood, California.

His company, Gale Banks Engineering, sells performance parts for automotive and marine engines. It specializes in diesel engines, and high end cutting edge equipment, performance parts and auxiliaries. The company has approximately 100+ employees.

1958: Gale Banks begins his career as a hot rodder by modifying the engine in his mother’s car. He founds “C.P’s Auto & Marine Racing Engines” as a way to fund his college expenses at Cal Poly, Pomona.

1966: Banks modifies a 1953 Studebaker and drives it to class records at El Mirage Dry Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats with a top speed of 184.52 mph, as certified by the Southern California Timing Association.

1970: First Banks-branded turbo marine racing engine is built. Gale Banks Engineering and Banks Power engines win the American Power Boat Association (APBA) & NJBA (National Jet Boat Association) Jet Class national championship.

1974: The Banks/Brunette tunnel boat powered by a 398 cubic inch engine developed by Gale Banks Engineering and Banks Power wins the first of five consecutive APBA Endurance Tunnel Hull national championships.

1976: The “Crucifier,” a race boat powered by a Banks fuel-injected nitro HEMI wins every event it enters, including the NDBA (National Drag Boat Association) and APBA nationals.

1978: Gale Banks Engineering is contracted by N.I.S.T.A. in the Department of Transportation to develop the power train for its Large Research Safety Vehicle (L.S.R.V.) program. When finished, it met proposed 1985 fuel and emission standards. This year also saw Banks develop the world’s first electronically injected oxygen-sensing turbocharged engine for Volvo.

1980: The U.S. Navy Seals contract Banks to develop an experimental twin-turbo marine engine that produces 535-hp and runs on 84-octane “Battle Gas.”

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