High fuel prices have many business owners worried about their rising expenses and customers who have far less money to spend.
Then there is Gale Banks Engineering of Azusa, where the product line might be in even greater demand now than before. The company is part of the $285-billion aftermarket industry, which includes custom engineered automotive and truck equipment billed as better than factory parts.
When the industry sprang up shortly after World War II, speed was the mantra that drove enthusiasts to tweak their vehicles. Now, interested motorists are more likely to be owners of motor homes, large sport utility vehicles and full-size trucks who are desperate for better fuel economy.
President Gale Banks III said he helped customers get through the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo and the 1979 energy crisis. At his office, which is decorated with 50 years of automotive history, Banks leans forward as if sharing a secret.
"I actually like fuel crunches," Banks said. "I've been through two of them. Both of them gave me and this company direction."
But there are limits to the improvements he can deliver, Banks said, bemoaning the impossible promises from snake-oil-style ads found in some automotive magazines.
"P.T. Barnum was right about one being born every minute," Banks quipped. Banks' products focus on three areas.
Bigger air intake systems deliver more air to the engine to help it breathe better, serving as the rough equivalent of giving a smoker a lung transplant from a long distance runner. Bigger exhaust systems give that additional air a quick escape route. The third part is a small computer called a tuner that fits under the hood and acts as a kind of personal fitness trainer for the engine, telling it when and how to work most efficiently.
They range in price from around $115 for a replacement filter for an air intake system to around $1,700 for an intake manifold that delivers the air-fuel mixture to the engine cylinders. They are also sold as sets called PowerPacks.
The performance claims such as gains in fuel economy are modest by design, Banks said, based on something his father referred to as "the rule of 10 and the rule of 100."
Banks' father walked a beat as an officer for the Los Angeles Police Department but had come home from World War II suffused with knowledge on how to keep just about any kind of ground vehicle in good repair. It was know-how, and a way to approach business, that he quickly passed on to his son.
