Out in the shop the (distilled) water and the (50 weight synthetic racing) oil have both gone into the engine and
final preparations (to first start up) are going on.
Every electrical connection is being checked, double checked, and then checked again ... there's a certain (good)
tension in the air. The Banks design and build crew are all top pros, seasoned troops; they've got all the right
tools, parts, information, data, everything. But there's still an air of, let's call it anticipation, out
there.
Earlier today, while one of the maintenance guys stood by with a fire extinguisher, the master electrical
switch was thrown and everyone in on the build, from engine guys to electricians to fabricator were all over
this newest Sidewinder feeling wires, crawling under, over, and around the Sidewinder watching for any sort of
problem.
All the switches worked, the water pump and the cooling fan both spun on command and all was right with the
world ... high fives, fist bumps, and even one low five (for the guy who was stationed under the racecar watching
for trouble) were passed around.
On a project this complicated there are a number of natural milestones. Getting the raw chassis out of the box
(with the whole office staff out on the street watching), putting the race engine into the chassis and tightening
it down, not just for fit of for press photos, or a show, but for good, seeing electricity course through the
machine's one mile of wiring for the first time (with no sparks, or smoke, just a nice, comforting "in-spec"
reading on a meter).
We know that its going to work, we've tested every component, every combination, every variable both in real
life (on the record-setting Banks S-10 pickup truck that's already become something of an icon in the diesel drag racing
world) and in the "lab" (computer simulations seven ways from Sunday). We know exactly how it should run, sound,
feel ... everything.
And yet, the first time firing up a new engine in a new chassis is a time of controlled nervousness that has
everyone in the ACE shop's attention.
There's no countdown, just the single warning: "Clear!" Click, whir, thrum.
And the sound? Mellow, self-contained, confident About as un-shrill as a racing engine can be. No the
engineers didn't wing this thing up to the near six thousand R's that it'll twist on the dragstrip in tests in a
day or two, but the sound that we all like was there. Strong, authoritative ... to repeat ...confident.
And today, firing the engine up after almost two solid weeks of tedious wiring and plumbing, should have been
just another day at the office for everyone associated with the project, but it's really different. A milestone, a marker, a memory-maker.
One of the many memorable points along the road in bringing a fire-breathing diesel drag racer to life at
Banks.
