Vic Edelbrock - Mechanic

Mechanic

He opened a repair garage on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The business experienced growth in 1934 and relocated to the corner of Venice Boulevard and Hoover in Los Angeles. Bobby Meeks was hired as an assistant at the age of 15 and would continue to work for Edelbrock his entire life.

Between 1934 and the start of World War II, the small repair garage relocated three more times. Vic, Jr. was born in 1936. Two years later in 1938, he purchased a project car, a 1932 Ford Roadster hot rod. For this car, Victor designed and manufactured the first product to feature the Edelbrock name, the Slingshot manifold, which essentially launched the new business known as Edelbrock. Edelbrock took the car to the Bonneville Salt Flats, and went 121.42 MPH weeks before America joined World War II.

During the war, Vic's machinist skills were put to work welding in the Long Beach shipyards and hand fabricating aircraft parts. First Vic worked at the Todd Shipyards, then later Edelbrock went to work for Len Saulter, machining parts from newly developed exotic metals. This work was categorized as critical to the war effort and would keep Vic from being drafted for the remainder of the war.