Эдельброк: Автокөлік бөлшектерінің тарихы мен дамуы

Company

Edelbrock, LLC is an American manufacturer of specialty automotive and motorcycle parts. The company is headquartered in the Memphis area (specifically Olive Branch, Mississippi), with a Southern California R&D Tech Center located in Cerritos, CA. The Edelbrock Sand Cast and Permanent Mold Manufacturing foundries are located in San Jacinto, CA. Edelbrock has two facilities in North Carolina: the Edelbrock Carburetor Division in Sanford, and the Edelbrock Race Center in Mooresville. Vic Edelbrock founded the corporation in 1938 when his desire to increase the performance of his 1932 Ford Roadster led him to design a new intake manifold, friends and fellow drivers soon wanted one as well. This transformed his repair garage into a parts manufacturing enterprise, making one of a kind equipment for automobiles.

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. In 1936, Katie Edelbrock gave birth to Vic, Jr., the couple's only child. Most importantly, the new manifold allowed two Stromberg 97 carburetors to be used, eliminating a bottleneck that limited the engine's horsepower. The manifold was tested for quality at the Muroc dry lake (occupied today by Edwards Air Force Base), which was a testing ground for Edelbrock and many other car clubs and racing associations. Originally, he had no intention of producing any additional manifolds, but the overwhelming response following his phenomenal speed in a 1932 Ford prompted Edelbrock to make more. This was the first product that he sold commercially and marked the beginning of the company as it is known today. Edelbrock ultimately manufactured 100 of the Slingshot manifolds. 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. In 1946, Edelbrock decided to expand his involvement into midget car racing, purchasing a car made by Frank Kurtis. In addition to racing the car, he wanted a test bench for the racing products he was developing. Edelbrock's team toured the dirt track racing circuit of Southern California with flathead guru Bobby Meeks tuning the cars. Many famous drivers were part of the Edelbrock team, including Walt Faulkner (first rookie to win pole at the Indy 500), Bill Vukovich (Indy 500 winner in ’53 and ’54), Rodger Ward (Indy 500 winner in ’59 and ’62), Cal Niday, Perry Grimm, Danny Oakes, Harry Stockman and Bill Zaring. A major claim to fame for Edelbrock was beating all the Offenhauser powered midget cars that had dominated midget car racing for several years; a remarkable feat because Offenhausers had a significant power advantage over all the other engines. Using his Kurtis Kraft V8 60 "shaker" midget car powered by a secret blend of 20% nitromethane (disguised with the scent of orange oil), The same car raced at the Orange Show Stadium in San Bernardino the following night, again beating the Offenhauser cars. This feat was never duplicated in the history of midget racing.

Until 1955, Edelbrock made parts only for the Ford Motor Company

In 1962, cancer claimed the life of Victor Edelbrock, Sr. at the age of 49. At the time, the company consisted of ten employees and annual sales were $450,000. Edelbrock was succeeded by his only son, 26 year old Vic Edelbrock, Jr. Vic Jr., who had graduated with a degree in business from USC in 1958, became president and chief executive officer, a position he held until 2010. The company joined SEMA (the Specialty Equipment Market Association) as a charter member in the 1960s, with Vic Edelbrock, Jr. serving as president from 1971 to 1974. Edelbrock had been elected in a crucial time in the history of SEMA;

In 1994, the Edelbrock corporation went public, selling shares of stock on the NASDAQ stock exchange. This initially raised $21 million, which was used mainly for construction of a new exhaust division in Torrance near its main facilities. In 2000, Russell Performance Plumbing, a company that manufactures fittings and hoses, was acquired by Edelbrock. The company, which had been based in Florida, was relocated to Torrance by 2001. As of June 30, 2004, the company employed 722 persons, and achieved revenues of $125.98 million USD. In January 2021, the company was announced that its headquarters would be relocated to the Memphis, Tennessee region.

The Edelbrock logo is prevalent in NASCAR but the company does not sponsor a racing team. Instead it engages in advertising through a $250,000 per year (2004) contract with NASCAR by which the Edelbrock contingency sticker is placed on every NASCAR race 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 right to use images of winning drivers and their cars in promotional literature and advertising. Edelbrock also posts contingency awards for drag racers, including NHRA sportsman categories. Since 2002, Edelbrock has been the title sponsor of the PRO Edelbrock Drag Racing Series, which features both professional and sportsman racing classes. The racing series includes seven classes of heads up style racing and three classes of index style racing. In 2021, Edelbrock partnered with Ilmor to build engines for the Superstar Racing Experience. Using the Ilmor 396 as a base, Edelbrock provides components such as the camshaft and ignition coils.

Eighty years after Vic Edelbrock Sr. manufactured the first Flathead Ford intake manifold, the Edelbrock company now designs and manufactures camshaft and lifter kits, carburetors, crate engines, cylinder heads, electronic fuel injection, engine blocks, engine dress up, fuel pumps, intake manifolds, nitrous oxide injection, power packages, superchargers, top end kits, valvetrain, and water pumps. The company relies on online and catalog resellers along with traditional brick and mortar retailers. In 2018, Edelbrock launched a direct to consumer e commerce website.