Vic Edelbrock Sr. was born in a small farming community of Eudora, Kansas in 1913. After the family grocery store burned down in 1927, he left school at the age of 14 to help support the family by ferrying Model T Fords from Wichita to the many outlying farms in the area. The frequent stops to replace parts that shook loose on the region’s dirt roads made him an expert at impromptu repair work. Soon after, he found work in a local repair shop, working as an auto mechanic.
When the Great Depression hit in 1931, Edelbrock went to California to live with his brother, Carl. Initially, he moved in with his brother and took a job as an auto mechanic. In order to earn some extra money to open his own repair shop, Edelbrock took an evening job in downtown Los Angeles parking cars at a large apartment complex. It was a chance encounter at this parking complex where he bumped into the 19-year-old Irish woman, Katherine (Katie) Collins, who was working as a day maid. Despite the fact that Katie was engaged, Edelbrock convinced her to give him a chance and not marry her fiancé. Vic and Katie married in June 1933, just eight weeks after meeting.
As a 22-year-old, Edelbrock teamed up with his new brother-in-law to open his first automobile repair shop on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.[4] Business flourished and in 1934 Edelbrock moved into his own shop on the corner of Venice Blvd and Hoover in Los Angeles. Business continued to grow rapidly and he moved his shop three more times in the 1930s. In 1936, Katie Edelbrock gave birth to Vic, Jr., the couple’s only child.
During World War II, Edelbrock’s machinist skills were put to work in the Todd Shipyards in Long Beach, hand fabricating and welding aircraft parts. The Office of Defense Transportation placed a ban on auto racing during the war, but Edelbrock discreetly designed and developed a new line of products. After the war, he produced aluminum racing cylinder heads, in addition to manifolds, which quickly gained him notability among hot rodding hobbyists. Parts to increase an engine’s performance were not readily available, so racers built their own. Soon Edelbrock found himself building pieces first for his friends and then for customers.
To deal with the enormous amount of mail he was receiving by 1946 Edelbrock created the company’s first catalog, Edelbrock Power and Speed Equipment, with the help of Robert E. “Pete” Petersen. This hastened the transformation of the Edelbrock company from a repair garage into a performance parts manufacturer. Then, in 1947, Edelbrock produced the first cylinder heads for the Ford flathead.
One of the first companies to use an engine dynamometer, Edelbrock moved to a 5,000 sq ft shop in 1949 to develop more manifolds, cylinder heads and racing pistons. In the early 1950s, he continued to dominate the dry lakes and expanded his racing to the Bonneville Speedway.
Edelbrock Intakes Include:
The 1938-1953 Slingshot
Status: Reproduced by Edelbrock Corp. until 2018 – Pending
Collectable: Because this item is currently being reproduced it has taken a bit of a hit on the side of being collectable. Yeah if you can prove that the intake is an original it is worth more but for the average flathead guy they would rather go with the new one.
Edelbrock came up with a design that featured a 180-degree manifold with two Stromberg 97 carburetors. These carburetors sat on a unique carb mount that resembled a slingshot without the rubber band. Hence, the legendary Slingshot name.
“(Vic) wanted something he knew would perform better,” Smith said. “The Slingshot balances out the intake distribution, just like an X-pipe equalizes pressure from side-to-side. It also has a cut-down center divider to improve the fuel atomization at high rpm.”
This new manifold was the first of many products to feature the “Edelbrock” name.
As Edelbrock Sr. continued to race and test his new manifold on the dry lakes of El Mirage in California, people began to take notice of its performance benefits. Between 1938-41, Edelbrock made about 100 Slingshot manifolds. Following World War II, Edelbrock built off the success of the Slingshot manifold to create other Flathead V8 parts, and the company transitioned from repair shop to a “power and speed equipment shop.”
“He learned in World War II how machining could make a good product,” Smith said. “He used this knowledge to come up with new cylinder heads. At the time, Ford used what was called “Denver” cylinder heads. The Flathead didn’t run well at elevation, so Vic took the Denver heads and milled them for higher compression.”
Status: Reproduced by Edelbrock Corp.
Collectable: Because this item is currently being reproduced it has taken a bit of a hit on the side of being collectable. Yeah if you can prove that the intake is an original it is worth more but for the average flathead guy they would rather go with the new one.
Update: Since about 2018 the intakes have stopped being produced and the company has changed hands and moved out of California. It is unknown at the time of writing this if they will continue making Flathead equipment at all. Which might be a good thing, as the new owners have not been known for there efforts to maintain quality.
1938-1948 4×2 Intake
Status: Not Currently Reproduced
Collectable: This intake was Vic’s answer to Frank Barron’s design 4×2 intake. Frank has started breaking records out at the dry lakes and Vic wasn’t going to left coughing dust. So the pretty boy went to work building his own version of the same intake. These intakes are pretty rare now and honestly are not recommended for street use. They were made to go 200 miles an hour on the dry lake. So they can be a nightmare to make the carbs work properly and commonly need to be used with dummies to get them to even run right on the street. This is a FULL RACE intake.
1938-1941 V860 2×2 Track Race Intake
Status: Not currently reproduced
Collectable: difficult to find these intakes can fetch a good price. But given how rare v860 builders are it can often be harder to find a buyer. These intakes were used for track T’s and midget race cars.
1938-1941 V860 2×2 Boat Race Intake
Status: Not currently reproduced
Collectable: This is honestly the same intake itself as the one above. But what I wanted to point out is the angled flange adapters for the carbs. If you find any Flathead intakes with angled flanges like this, and I don’t mean adapters. Just angled flanges, the use for that intake was likely race boat.
1932-1948 Edelbrock Tall Neck 2×2
Status: Not currently reproduced
Collectable: This was Vic’s effort to build the ultimate intake before the Sling Shot design was perfected. This is one of the most early Edelbrock intakes and if you find it grab it. These intake can often be over looked by novas collectors at swaps because it looks like a modified intake. They are not. That is how Vic made them back then. But he found that they provided great torque but where to turbulent for high end speed. It was Barney Navarro that recommended trying the Sling design to vic.
1938-1948 Super Duel
Status: Reproduced by Edelbrock Corp. (Production stopped in 2018)
Collectable: Because this item is currently being reproduced it has taken a bit of a hit on the side of being collectable. This intake requires an offset generator but will give you a better mixture between the front and rear cylinders.
The 1948-1953 Duel intake
Status: Reproduced by Edelbrock Corp. until 2018 – Pending
Collectable: Because this item is currently being reproduced it has taken a bit of a hit on the side of being collectable. Yeah if you can prove that the intake is an original it is worth more but for the average Flathead guy they would rather go with the new one.
1949-1953 452 Ford Flathead 4 Barrel
Status: Reproduced by Edelbrock Corp. (Production stopped in 2018)
Collectable: Because this item is currently being reproduced it has taken a bit of a hit on the side of being collectable. Yeah if you can prove that the intake is an original it is worth more but for the average flathead guy they would rather go with the new one.
THIS IS A GROWING LIST AND WILL BE UPDATED AND CHANGED AS WE GET NEW INFORMATION OR NEW INFORMATION IS SUBMITTED TO US. If you have any questions or would like to submit information please contact us using the contact form. We are always looking to update our information.
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