The diesel experts at Banks Power are working hard to get ready for SEMA, and they’re bringing quite a few surprises. We recently caught wind of these surprises from Banks’ Facebook page, where a recent post mentioned developments on the L5P Duramax, along with pictures.

We reached out to Gale Banks for comment. “On the L5P, we’re working on a Derringer tuner,” he said. “It’s not quite done yet, but it will debut at SEMA. The Derringer is an in-line, plug-and-play device that connects to the OBDII and leaves the ECU alone, but it reads the ECU’s information and manipulates readings to increase horsepower and torque.”

The Derringer tuner is currently in development for the L5P Duramax. It will launch at the SEMA Show, and offers users three tune levels (Stock, Load, and Sport) and a failsafe to prevent limp mode engagement. It also has an Extended Power feature, which allows users an extra 10 seconds of high-demand power; just enough to finish a driving maneuver like passing on the freeway.

In a manner of speaking, this makes the Derringer a best-of-both-worlds device. It won’t permanently affect the ECU, but it will allow users to get more power out of their engine. “On the EcoBoost 3.5-liter V6, we’ve seen numbers as high as 90 additional horsepower and 110 additional pound-feet of torque,” said Gale.

As for diesel, it’s able to bring up another 35 horsepower and 47 lb-ft of torque on the 3.0-liter EcoDiesel. However, Gale Banks indicated those numbers will be higher before launch. We can only imagine what the finished Derringer will do for an output increase!

Other cool facets of the Derringer are its easy-to-hide size and waterproof durability. What’s more, in the event that the Derringer loses its power source or otherwise fails, it has the Banks Active Safety feature the counteract it. This puts the vehicle back on stock power without throwing up any DTCs or going into “limp mode.”

To access the three tune levels on the Derringer, one can use a dash-mounted three-position manual switch. He or she can also control and monitor it through the Banks iDash 1.8 MMI (pictured above).

Gale stated that Banks will be showing the Derringer for the following applications at the SEMA Show: 2.3-liter EcoBoost, 2.7-liter EcoBoost, 3.5-liter EcoBoost, 3.0-liter EcoDiesel, Jeep 3.0-liter diesel, 6.7-liter Cummins, and the 1.6-liter and 2.0-liter engines in the Ford Focus and Fiesta.

In addition to the L5P Derringer, Banks will also be introducing a “Six-Gun” controlled Derringer that will offer six levels of performance. It will have both graphical and numeric readouts.

We’re looking forward to hearing more about Banks’ Derringer and other diesel products at this year’s SEMA Show. In the meantime, check out the Banks website and Facebook page for more cool shots and product information.

Here at the Banks garage, we see an L5P Duramax being used for testing purposes. We expect to hear more about the Derringer and other L5P developments after SEMA 2017. The black Ram In the background is receiving the “full Banks PowerPack with our Ram-Air cold air intake, ‘Monster’ Boost Tubes, Banks Air-to-Air Intercooler, four-inch Monster Ram intake horn, Heater Delete plate, and Monster Exhaust.”