Is Vic Edelbrock Sr. (right) elated by the rear-wheel horsepower produced by Ford’s brand-new Thunderbird, or are he and employee Murray Jensen just feeling sheepish about staging a series of April 1955 photos for Technical Editor Racer Brown without turning any tires? We’ll likely never know, since all three are long gone.
Another enduring mystery is why the trio went to such trouble to set up a dyno-testing scene—realistic right down to heavy junk in the trunk (an anvil and crankshaft)—that we can’t find in HOT ROD or any other Petersen Publishing Co. monthly.
Nor have we seen this particular car in print. Historian Greg Sharp, the NHRA Motorsports Museum’s curator, believes it to be the personal T-bird that Vic bought new and drove on the street. It briefly served as a fancy test mule for developing Y-block speed parts. After another longtime employee, Don Towle, blew the stock slushbox at Saugus (California) Drag Strip, the car was parked, tarped, and eventually sold.
Cancer would claim the Edelbrock Equipment Co. founder at 49, in 1962. His 26-year-old son, Vic Jr., took over and grew the firm into an industry giant prior to his own death last June at age 80.
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