Gale Banks' Sidewinder S-10 drag truck first made news by running in the 8-second range right off the trailer in las Vegas. Well, the team tried out a new torque converter, and after some tuning, ran a 7.96 second pass at 167.34 mph at the Speedworld Motorplex in Wittman, Arizona, on December 18, 2007.
"We were at the track testing a new torque-converter setup, but the clocks told us that we were going even quicker and faster than we did a month ago when we set a new record in las Vegas," said a beaming gale Banks. "i couldn't be more proud of this team and their accomplishment."
We're still waiting to see what the truck is really capable of. The team is still running the road-race version of the engine, plucked from the Sidewinder Type-R truck. The drag-racing version of the Duramax engine is still in development back at the shop. Stay tuned.
GM Dumps Allison Tranny BusinessThere was talk of Allison being sold in January, and now it looks as if the deal might happen (pending regulatory approval). gM agreed to sell its Allison transmission and military business to Onex and the Carlyle group because it considered the divisions nonessential to its core business. The Carlyle group is a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm, and Onex is a Toronto-based investment conglomerate. The two will be equal partners in the deal, both sides said.
Indianapolis-based Allison designs and builds commercial-duty automatic transmissions, hybrid propulsion systems and parts for trucks and buses, off- highway equipment, and military vehicles. The company boasts an 80-percent market share of all medium- and heavy-duty commercial transmissions, with annual revenues of more than $2 billion.
Greg ledford, Carlyle's managing director, says the new owners aim to eventually take Allison public. he says Carlyle and Onex would assume all UAW contracts for employees from gM, although he won't comment on any possible changes during collective bargaining later this year. The firms have no plans to close any of the seven plants, ledford says.
The Big Three Drop Many DealershipsAfter closing factories and slashing hundreds of thousands of jobs from their labor forces, Ford, GM, and Chrysler are now weeding out underperforming dealerships. GM has reduced its dealerships by 229 to 6,807 in the past year, Ford has shrunk by 139 to fewer than 4,140 as of July 2007, and Chrysler has eliminated 142 to 3,607 as of October.
For a long time, "the strategy was to have a dealership on every corner in order to drive market share," says Ford spokesman, Jim Cain. Today, "the business model is very different."
10 Mostly Worthless Facts1. Serbia is about to sell its only car company, which manufactures the Yugo. You remember the Yugo, right?
2.In 1980, gMC called its non-Stepsidebed-appointed pickups "Wideside." Chevy called the same trucks "Fleetside."
3.The tires on Calin's Buick Century are pretty bald from his aggressive driving.
4.The back tires on Kevin's gMC could support Ma and Pa Kettle's farm tractor.
5.13-inch rims on a donk would make it a dank.
6.In 1957, Jeep built the FC150 1/2-ton 4x4 pickup. The cab resembled a van, but it had either a stepside or stake bed out back. These are very rare trucks, with production numbers of less than 3,000 units for each model variation.
7.Mike likes to sit in his garage in his '67 and imagine what it's like to drive his truck with working taillights.
8.The '48 Chevy 1/2-ton FP pickup was available with an inline, overhead-valve, six-cylinder engine. it had a displacement of 216.5 ci, a 6.5:1 compression ratio, and it pumped out a whopping 29.4 hp.
9.This is the best thread on our website right now: http://forums.sporttruck.com/70/6489923/the-lounge/5-wordsor-lesskeep-the-story-going/index.html
10. You can now sell your sport truck on our website for free. Yay!