Vic Edelbrock Jr

Edelbrock was born in 1936, four years after his father bought his first “project car” — a 1932 Ford Roadster. He watched as his father’s reputation as an elite mechanic grew. Meanwhile, the Roadster became a foray for the family business into the world of hot rods. It would spark the design and manufacture of the first Edelbrock intake manifold — the part of an engine that supplies the fuel/air mixture to the cylinders. When his son became president and CEO of Edelbrock Corp., the company had just 10 employees, annual sales of $450,000 and $200,000 in the bank. He built it into a multimillion-dollar enterprise with its own development labs, ad department and assembly lines employing 700 people in three shifts. In the 1980s and ’90s he moved Edelbrock Corp. into a new direction with a product line that included carburetors, camshaft kids, valve train parts, exhaust systems and engine accessories, among other things. Key to the self-sufficient company was its foundry, allowing Edelbrock to control the quality of its aluminum castings. Edelbrock Foundry Corp. is an aluminum green sand foundry built by the company from scratch in San Jacinto in 1988. Edelbrock, the only child of Edelbrock Sr., graduated from Dorsey High School and attended USC on a football scholarship. He graduated with a degree in business in 1959, just three years before his father’s diagnosis and death from inoperable cancer. He earned his pilot’s license in 1968 and would fly from Torrance to check on his San Jacinto foundry. Edelbrock, who also liked to race cars and boats, served as president and CEO of Edelbrock Corp. until 2010, when he gave up those positions but stayed on as chairman of the board.