Until We Meet Again, Mr. Edward Iskenderian

Pioneer Hot Rodder, Camshaft Grinder, Industry Legend
and SEMA’s First President

“My ambition was to make $100 a day which would be five cams at $20 a piece. By golly in about a year we were doing five cams a day. Then it got bigger than I expected.”

He made it past 104 years. Ed “The Camfather” Iskenderian was a true folk hero in the automotive racing community, and talking with him was like an education “from the horse’s mouth” on the origins of American hot rodding. He was a founding father of the American drag racing and dry lake movements. His impact on motorsports as a parts manufacturer is unparalleled, and he became a household name with high-performance car lovers as his camshafts and related equipment became an industry standard. Ed was naturally inquisitive, street smart and greatly skilled as a businessman. He had tremendous interest and enthusiasm for all things mechanical. The industry lost a pioneer and a good man, gone but never forgotten.  

HOW IT ALL STARTED FOR THE MAN CALLED ISKY

“I was always afraid some engineer would make fun of me or tell me what I’m talking about is not true. But no, I realized later there weren’t any experts about this new hobby. It was open for everybody to throw in their 2-cents worth you might say.”

He purchased an advertisement in the second-edition of Hot Rod magazine and like wildfire the business took off. 

This is the $10.00 ad that ran in issue #2 of Hot Rod magazine and it put Isky on the map outside of Southern California. Twenty years after it was published, Ed liked to tell a story in his then-full-page Hot Rod magazine ads that stated: “That’s all Ed could afford because Iskenderian was the ‘World’s Smallest Cam Grinder…Then!” Later, when the Isky ads got real creative, the ad man was Leon Cook and he did a lot in getting readers nationwide to notice Isky cams.

HOT ROAD ROADSTER

It was years before the debut of the Chrysler HEMI^® V8 engine, but Ed did manage to come up with 1925 T-Roadster (using an Essex frame) that he equipped with a Flathead V8 but with very unique “Maxi” cylinder heads and he had his name engraved on the valve covers. He eventually ran an Edelbrock triple intake and Vertex magneto after experimenting with various setups. He managed a 120 mph run with his machine at El Mirage.

In the May 1948 issue of Hot Rod magazine, Ed received exposure for his home-built car as it was named “Hot Rod of the Month”, which helped put him and his talents on the radar screen for racers.

COVER OF HOT ROD

Shot for the cover, the June 1948 issue of Hot Rod magazine featured the T-Roadster and the work put into it. In later years, the car, unrestored and all original, had become “faded” and “tarnished” and “scruffy” according to some reports, albeit with all the eventual body scuffs, weathered chrome and interior tears, it still retained a certain charm.

FIRST CATALOG

He started his business in a small garage off an alley in the rear of Mercury Tool and Die shop, and his reputation for ingenuity and resourcefulness grew rapidly. The 1950 Iskenderian Racing Cams “Catalogue” was well worth the 25 cents it cost for racers who were after top proven performance. 

5-CYCLE ISKY CAM FOR HEMI ENGINES

It was during the late 1950s when Ed was able to really get some major advertising exposure with his “5 Cycle Cam” in the way of a top-running dragster of the era, the Cook and Bedwell car. It was a record breaker and in 1960, Isky hit paydirt for ad promotion with the 204.54-mph blast out of the “Chizler” car of Chris Karamesines. The engine for that dragster as described by Trend Book author Griff Borgeson at the time: “It was a 1957 Chrysler HEMI, bored and stroked to 442 ci. Grant pistons on Iskenderian forged aluminum rods yielded a compression ratio of 8:1. Isky also made the cam – his 5-Cycle design – the extra cycle was no more than a period extended overlap where both intake and exhaust valves are open, but the cam delivered plenty of high-rpm horsepower. Up top, a Hilborn injector rode above a GMC 6-71 huffer.” That Isky-equipped engine was considered a generation beyond what others were running at the time. 

It was all about “volumetric efficiency” (something Ed learned from Ed Winfield) in this ad that came out in April 1958, the 5-Cycle camshaft and all the races it won! Roller cams were highlighted too, and the 8.79-second run at 176.40 mph run from the “Don’s Garage” dragster of Don Garlits was a new world record. Isky was on a roll!

Because Ed ran his products on the dynamometer for testing, to measure both power increases and durability, he built and assembled them by hand (such as this HEMI engine) and he also used his “Strob-O-tach” testing devise to spot valve spring and pushrod vibrations through a range of different camshaft lobes. 

It was at an early “Smoker’s Fuel and Gas Championship Drags” meet at Bakersfield where the Isky 505 Magnum T-shirt debuted.

FIRST SEMA PRESIDENT

On his involvement with SEMA, which at that time in 1963, stood for “Speed Equipment Manufacturer’s Association”: “Phil Weiand said, ‘You know, we ought to have a show’. I said, ‘Really? Us have a show? Would anyone come to that?'”

One story that has circulated is that Ed was voted in as the SEMA’s first president, which he served for the organization’s first two years, that he had left the room and the other guys that also started SEMA voted him in. It was 1963-1964, and Isky was a major advertiser in all the car buff and racing publications, so the others in the room figured his clout would “suck other people into the ‘club’.”  

THE T-SHIRT

It was 1949 and Wally Parks with the SCTA (Southern California Timing Association) hosted the first Bonneville Speed Trials, it was going to be a big deal and Isky gave a couple of racers (Norm Lean and Doug Harrison) a hundred dollars for gas money and a camshaft for the race. The two of them were so happy to get the help from Isky, and they told him that they were “going to dress up the crew a little bit.” And a whole new innovative way of advertising was about to take place for Iskenderian Cams!

When the event was up and running, these guys and crew were wearing special one-off T-shirts with the Isky logo placed in the center of the fronts of the shirts, about four inches across. Ed saw them wearing the shirts when they came back, and he asked: “Where did you get those made?” They told him Hollywood, and gave him the address. Isky took their idea, enlarged his logo to a much bigger size on the front of the shirts, and started giving away and selling Isky T-shirts, about half and half. “The T-shirts became a great advertising deal,” Ed said. “They think I invented the T-shirt advertising idea, but, the guys gave me the idea!”

HIS DESK

He was famous for never throwing away anything and always maintained his office desk stacked up with miscellaneous parts and pieces, automotive or otherwise. Engine builder Ed Pink once told a story where he went to Isky’s shop and asked to speak with Ed. The lady up front pointed to him to go to his office. Pink sat down in the chair facing the desk, and waited and waited for Ed to come in to his office. Just as he was going to get up and return to the front desk, he noticed a ring of cigar smoke coming from the other side of the massive pile of items on Ed’s desk and realized Isky had been sitting in his chair the entire time.

FAMOUS LOGOS

Without question, the round, orange Isky “Big I” stickers is one of the most recognizable logos on all of motorsports!

No doubt about it, Iskenderian always had eye-catching logos and unique names for the various cams over the years.

When the movie The Godfather was released in 1972, it was a major box office hit and advertising man Pete Millar told Ed that he would figure out a way to use something from it in some Isky magazine ads. Ed thought about it and suggested that Pete make him “The Camfather” and with the big cigar in his mouth and a huge camshaft held in his arm, the famous a campaign was born!  

RETRO ADVERTISEMENT

It was in 1976 (way before the nostalgia drag race dragster scene came about) that Isky’s ad agency put out this Cook and Bedwell 1957 “Isky-U’Fab” dragster “flashback” full-page ad. Emery Cook said to Isky one day, “Why don’t you make a five-cycle cam like the Italians do.” Ed thought about it, and realized it would be a fantastic publicity generator. “How could I justify a fifth cycle? Oh, it’d have to be the overlap period.” Gimmick or not, all of a sudden the Cook and Bedwell car went some 11 mph over the speed record.  

WELL-KNOWN AT THE DRAGS

From coast to coast, the name “ISKY” has long been associated with winning races, setting records and championships, from the Top Fuel class all the way to bracket racers.

Chicago racer Chris “The Golden Greek” Karamesines was a long-time Isky cam user, going all the way back to the 204.54-mph run on April 4, 1960, at Alton Dragway in Illinois. It was clocked on Fosdick timers and debated for years and years. Nonetheless, Ed Iskenderian promoted the hell out it!

With an early Chrysler HEMI engine for power, Isky-equipped, the “Original Rat Trap” was a top-running AA/Fuel Altered back in the day, seen here making a run at Lions Dragstrip. 

With Rich Siroonian behind the wheel in 1970, a brand-new “Big John Mazmanian” modernized ’Cuda Funny Car was built, camshaft by Isky, chassis by Woody Gilmore and with support from Chrysler Corporation in the way of Plymouth dealers of Southern California. The car was fast and eventually would become the first Funny Car to run over 220 mph (221.78 mph). With Ed Iskenderian often attending these races, the Mazmanian team was known as “The Armenian Army!”

In the mid-1970s, the team of James Warren and Roger Coburn were dominate forces in Top Fuel racing, and Isky supplied them with the latest cams for nitromethane applications.

HUMOROUS ADVERTISING PROGRAM

Ed and Pete Millar had loads of fun in the Isky advertising – case in point, this 1984 full-page ad that exposed “cam merchandisers” that really didn’t grind their camshafts but rather just repackaged generic cams without any technical expertise or testing capabilities. Pete did his heavily detailed cartoon artwork and in this ad, Ed picked the name “Wiz-Bang Cam Co. Ltd.” as he had remembered an old movie with Clark Gable that mentioned a real oil boom town in Oklahoma, named Wizbang, and he thought it would be perfect to describe the bogus repackaging company in the ad. 

ALWAYS MAKING THE SCENE

From time to time, the famous ISKY roadster was seen at gatherings and for anyone who was fortunate enough to see it out and running in the California sunshine, it was a very special sight. Amazing how it had been kept in the original shape all those years.

It was at the 2010 running of the annual SEMA Show when we caught up and visited with Isky, him being the very first president of SEMA it’s a natural he attended these events and did a walk around the various exhibits and booths. It was 1978 when the SEMA organization inducted Ed Iskenderian into their Hall Of Fame, and anyone with history in the high-performance industry knew who he was!

A true “car guy” in every sense, Ed liked to attend car shows, races, rod runs, just about everything to do with cars. In this shot, he was in Long Beach, CA, near the Queen Mary at a 2011 Custom Car event and seemed to have as much fun and enjoyment as he must have had as a young teenager when he first saw the “gow-jobs” running around his Los Angeles neighborhood. The term “hot rod” had not yet been widely used.

Some years back, Ed drove down to Don Prudhomme’s shop in Vista, CA, during the time Dale Armstron  into their pit area, and that including a seat in a Cackle Car! Over the years, top-running Top Fuel dragsters relied on Isky cams in their nitro HEMI engines (as an example, Tommy Ivo was a loyal Isky cam guy) and during that era few knew the intake and exhaust, and overlap requirements for these powerplants as Ed Iskenderian.

ISKY AT DON GARLITS MUSEUM

Ed Iskenderian and Don Garlits were long-time friends since the very early days! Inside the Garlits Museum (Ocala, FL) is the exhibit on the “Swamp Rat I” dragster from 1956-1961 which proudly has “ISKY-WEIAND Special” markings on it. Weiand was a co-sponsor to the car as the provider of the intake manifold.

NEW HOME FOR THE ROADSTER

After a long time at the Wally Parks NHRA Museum in Pomona, Ed allowed the old roadster he had built before WWII to be relocated to a beautiful display at the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed. Here’s Ed with curator Tim Matthews, who greatly impressed Ed with his knowledge of the history of the car (known as “La Cucaracha” because of its low stance). The car has so much history that was is worth a dedicated article all to itself.  

BADGE OF FIREWALL HONOR

Rodders that have an Isky camshaft in their engines proudly display an official “timing tag” of which the originals were made of brass.

BOOK

Author Matt Stone in 2007 wrote a 208-page book all about the man, titled ISKY and with the forward done by Vic Edelbrock, Jr. “Delve into the life of Ed Iskenderian, a gifted machinist with a natural knack for promotion, who started a cam business from the ground up and became a leading cam authority and hot rodding icon.” The book (which had been sold out for years) was reprinted in paperback, January 2025. ISBN# 1613252900

CINDY GIBBS’ ART

Pencil art done by Cindy Gibbs was done just days before Ed’s 104th birthday celebration (that took place at the Lions Museum) and it’s a treasured item for the handful of art collectors that now possess one, signed by both Mr. Iskenderian and Ms. Gibbs. 

 A Great Inspirational Ed Iskenderian Quote:

“I was very fortunate in get in something that I like, and was interested in, still interested in it. A lot of the development came from just trying things, just mechanical things I was curious about. ‘I wonder if this will work? I wonder if we ought to try that?’ Oh I figured we might stumble on to something. If we just keep fooling around here, and that’s what we did. We stumbled on to stuff!”

Ed’s Cigar Habit:

“When business got real good, on the phone, I started smoking, I’d get nervous and I didn’t want to start drinking! At lunch they had cigars for 25 cents, and by God that calmed me down… I don’t inhale.” 

Author: James Maxwell