Gale Banks might not be a name that everyone on the street might know, but if you know about diesels, or more specifically high output high performance diesels, then you know about Gales Banks. As far as I know, Banks still holds multiple diesel records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He has been squeezing more and more performance out of oil burning engines longer than most diesel fans have been alive. And now, it would seem, he has turned his attention towards the Volkswagen’s Jetta TDI. This could get very interesting in a lot of ways.

This is a bit of a departure for Banks. In addition to regular runs on The Salt, his main line of work is working aftermarket tricks on the biggest diesel pickups available in the U.S. and big rig semi-trucks.

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For many years, diesel engines have gotten a bad rap for being smokey and loud, but one man is on a mission to tell people it’s not that way anymore!

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Gale Banks, owner of Gale Banks Engineering. He’s considered by many to be the King of Diesel in the U.S., having designed and raced diesel engines since the late 1950’s.

Banks said he has seen the diesel performance industry evolve at a tremendous rate during his nearly 50 years of building engines. “I sold my first engine in 1958,” he said. “I’ve seen this market change dramatically, and it’s been exciting. The question we need to ask ourselves is how do we work worldwide to make diesel bigger than it is today? The message I want to tell people is that diesel kicks gas, and that’s no smoke. Winning races and setting diesel performance records is the best way to further this industry and to get people really excited about diesel.

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