Banks Super-Turbo Freightliner: The Moving Mountain

The power to move mountains: A trait of the Gods recently introduced to humans. Case in point: Mike Ryan’s Super-Turbo Freightliner powered by Banks. While the rig was designed to race at this past weekend’s 91st Annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, you’d likely move Pikes Peak itself if you hitched the truck to it. In reality, the Banks rig is the moving mountain.

To describe the way the truck boogies, compare it to the locomotion of a frightening giant like Godzilla, but instead of the requisite creeping gait, picture Godzilla maneuvering with the ferocity of 49ers tight end Vernon Davis, and things begin to get marvelously terrifying. The Banks Super-Turbo Freightliner is like a rocket-laden Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. Just imagine the cojones on the guy driving that truck.

Speaking of driver/owner Mike Ryan and his Sunday run up Pikes Peak, an impressed Gale Banks said, “As I watched his segment times pop up, I realized that he was faster than at least half of the BMWs, Mustangs, and Porsches that had run earlier.”

Humans not only have the power to move mountains, but they can race them, too.

How do you race a mountain? Banks begins with a 14-liter Detroit Diesel 60 series marine engine. By cranking the power using a myriad of gizmos in addition to a screw-type supercharger and a gargantuan turbocharger, they end up with 2,400 horsepower, or triple the original engine’s power.

How did the Freightliner and Mike Ryan perform at this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb? 12:49.21 — ten seconds behind the previous year’s time. Why the slower pace? Good ol’ mother nature in the form of rain, hail and snow. Top that off with the rain water dumping decomposed granite all over the course, and what you have is a figure skating competition up the Rockies.

“Mike Ryan is one who must delight in twisting the tail of the Devil. As destroyed cars were coming off the mountain and rain squalls drenched the starting line, Mike suited up and sat in the racer, determined to climb that mountain,” Gale Banks said.

Ryan’s determination was as megalithic as any man crazy enough to pilot a rambling mountain.

His 2012 run was performed under more ideal conditions, but with (only) 2,000 horsepower, his pre-Banks-powered mechanical setup was less ideal. This year’s 2,400 horsepower was very apparent in the straights, but with 156 turns, it would appear Mother Nature won this time.

There’s always next year, though, and more than likely, the Banks Super-Turbo Pikes Peak Freightliner will make a mole hill out of that mountain.

Via [Banks Power]