Car Hacking with Gale Banks

• Download Video (.mp4)
• Embed episode:

In today's episode of Boing Boing tv, we visit the workshop of automotive engineering guru and multiple land speed record-holder Gale Banks, known to many as the godfather of speed. Who knew encryption played a role in high-performance engine design? We take an up-close look at diesel racing trucks capable of speeds over 220 mph -- and we peek at the software that commands their guts. Banks is an advisor to the Automotive X Prize, and the guy Jay Leno calls when he wants to double the muscle of an 810-horsepower racecar.(special thanks, Ruth and Coop)

See also: Extreme Diesel Truck Racing.

[#1 posted by zuzu , January 14, 2008 8:48 AM]

I think engine control programmers have been around for at least a decade, but since so much in automobiles are proprietary (and now actively DRM'd apparently), development and popularization has been sluggish and expensive.

Also, there's an open-source / DIY programmer available called MegaSquirt. (I swear it's not a female ejaculation pr0n site!)

[#2 posted by Peter S. Conrad , January 14, 2008 9:41 AM]

Wow, a whole vlog about high-performance engine tuning without a single shot of an engine actually running. Bummer.