Hot Rod Pioneer Ed Iskenderian, Dead At 104
Ed Iskenderian, also known as "Isky" and "The Camfather," passed away on Tuesday at 104 years old. Ed built one of the most successful aftermarket hot rod parts companies, Iskenderian Cams, from a single cam grinding machine he designed and built himself in 1946 into a massive international supplier. He was a pioneer in the art of hot rodding and dry lakebed racing, a legend, a hall of famer, and by all accounts an pretty good dude.
The Camfather began his hot rodding affinity way back in 1939 when he slapped together a T-body Ford roadster with a big flathead V8, using parts from his pals Vic Edelbrock and Stu Hilborn to make it faster every day. He ordered a camshaft from Ed Winfield, but ultimately didn't receive it because the cam man couldn't keep up with demand. After a short break to serve his country flying supply missions to the South Pacific in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Isky returned home with even more lust for speed. If Winfield couldn't give him the cam he wanted, why couldn't he just design and engineer one for himself? So he did. Within a decade of his first self-ground cam, Iskenderian had become pretty much the most memorable name in racing.
In addition to being an incredible engineer, Isky was also a phenomenal hype man for himself. In a move that was pretty much unheard of at the time, Ed developed a "corporate sponsorship" for Don Garlits' drag racing team. Motorsport today can't run without sponsors, but at the time Isky was pretty much the first to do it, and the company would go on to sponsor some of the greatest teams and drivers in NASCAR, Indy, drag racing, off-road, Bonneville, monster trucks, tractor pulls, and boat racing.
He also basically pioneered merchandising, printing up thousands of t-shirts with his company logo on them and giving them away at races. You weren't nobody in the hot rod scene if you didn't have an Isky tee.
His own name is shorthand for speed
Not content to just be good at making cams and building engines, Ed had to be the best at it. A major claim to fame for Ed and his Isky Cams was to be the first to build an engine with one horsepower per cubic inch running on pump gasoline, in a postwar Dodge Hemi. He was real proud of that one.
By 1963, Ed was practically a household name in the American V8 hop up scene. Working with a few of his fellow industry pioneer pals, Ed helped spearhead the creation of the Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association, which you now know as the Specialty Equipment Market Association, or SEMA. Ed served as the group's first president in 1963 and 1964.
When it comes to a life well lived, it seems like Ed pretty much did everything right. He served his country, he built a wildly successful family business, he made a lot of friends, he had fun doing it, and he lived longer than pretty much anyone else in history. They say we're here for a good time, but not a long time, but Ed really made both happen.
The Camfather leaves behind his three Camchildren, Richard, Timothy, and Amy, and eight Camgrandchildren. The tagline his eponymous company used for decades was "Isky Wins" and with the life he had, and the fun times he filled it with, it sure seems like he won.