Edelbrock

Encyclopedia : E : ED : EDE : Edelbrock

---

Edelbrock Corporation is a California-based specialty performance automotive and motorcycle aftermarket parts manufacturer. The company has five locations: its headquarters and three more locations in Torrance and its foundry in San Jacinto.

The beginning

Edelbrock was established in 1938 in Beverly Hills by Victor Edelbrock, Sr., who used his experience as a mechanic and professional race car driver to design and produce intake manifolds and cylinder heads. He designed the Slingshot manifold for his 1932 Ford Roadster that was equipped with a Flathead engine. The manifold was tested for quality at the Rosamond dry lakes. The Slingshot was the first product to have the Edelbrock name and the foundation upon which the company was built. Before World War II, Edelbrock manufactured 100 Slingshot manifolds.

During the war, Vic's machinist skills were put to work welding in the Long Beach shipyards and hand fabricating aircraft parts. After the war, Victor Edelbrock, Sr., designed aluminum racing cylinder heads which hastened the transformation of the Edelbrock company from a repair garage to a performance parts manufacturer. In 1946, the company launched its first catalog, Edelbrock Power and Speed Equipment.

Racing history

In 1946, Edelbrock entered racing history in the field of midget car racing. Edelbrock's team toured the dirt track racing circuit of Southern California with Bobby Meeks tuning the cars and drivers such as Perry Grimm, Walt Faulkner, Bill Vukovich and Rodger Ward. Using a Kurtis Kraft midget car and Rodger Ward at the wheel, history was made when Edelbrock's nitromethane-powered #27 car broke the winning streak of the Offenhauser-equipped midget cars at the famed Gilmore Stadium.

Continued success

One of the very first companies to use an engine dynamometer, Edelbrock moved to a 5000 sq. ft. "purpose-built" shop in 1949 to develop more manifolds, cylinder heads and racing pistons. In the early 1950s, Edelbrock continued to dominate the dry lakes and expanded racing to the Bonneville Speedway.

In 1964, the company met another milestone with the development of the Chevrolet C-4B manifold by Vic's friend, Bob Joehnck, opening the door to a whole new line of performance products.

Edelbrock today

Victor Edelbrock, Sr., died in 1962, and was succeeded by his son Victor Edelbrock, Jr., as President and Chief Executive Officer.

Edelbrock joined SEMA (the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association) as a charter member in the 1960s, with Vic Jr. serving as president from 1971 to 1974.

In 2000, Russell, a company that manufactures fittings and hoses, was acquired by Edelbrock.

According to the 2004 Edelbrock annual report, as of June 30 the company employed 722 persons, and achieved revenues of $125.98 million USD. [link]

Sponsorship

Edelbrock doesn't sponsor a NASCAR team directly, but instead has access to advertising through a deal with NASCAR by which the Edelbrock contingency sticker is placed on every NASCAR car. Contingency is a common form of 'after the fact' sponsorship whereby racers place stickers on their vehicles from companies that post monetary awards to racing teams for winning, in exchange for the visibility and the right to use images of the driver and their car in promotional literature and advertising. Similarly, Edelbrock posts congingency awards to drag racers as well, including sportsman classes of racers who engage in racing as a hobby.

References

 

---

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

?