Racing Engine Tapestries
Description: Venolia Pistons entered the speed equipment market back in 1946 and went on to play an integral part throughout decades of racing history. From countless speed records, both on land and at sea, to numerous national and international racing championships, Venolia Pistons has more than proven their mettle.
Description: Robert Paxton McCulloch formed McCulloch Engineering in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the city in which his grandfather made millions as an early pioneer of electric utilities and manufacturer of electric trolleys. McCulloch hired on a number of engineers at the firm, including Francis L. Colburn, who designed a simple, easy-to-install centrifugal supercharger. McCulloch began offering the superchargers as kits for Ford’s flathead V-8 engine, advertising them to truck owners as well as racers and owners of every day street-driven cars. The crankshaft-driven supercharger had a fixed 6:1 ratio and was seated horizontally between the carburetor and intake manifold. McCulloch first offered the kit in 1937 and by 1942, his sales topped $3 million.
Description: Tom Beatty was a dry lakes racer who later became a speed shop owner. There were a number of speed manufacturers during the 1950s producing racing cams, heads, etc. and Tom worked for a number of them and truly honed his craft. Tom Beatty Automotive Engineering made all kinds of engines for all kinds of go-fast applications, so whether you were breaking records at Bonneville, tearing up the quarter mile in Fremont, or forcing buddy to hang on for dear life at Lake Elsinore, Tom was your guy. From manifolds to superchargers, Tom made it to his exacting specifications which resulted in engines that ran stronger and pulled harder than anything the big name builders were making.
Description: The Subaru EJ engine is a series of four-stroke automotive engines manufactured by Subaru. They were introduced in 1989, intended to succeed the previous Subaru EA engine. The EJ series is the mainstay of Subaru's engine line, with all engines of this series being 16-valve horizontal flat-fours, with configurations available for single, or double-overhead camshaft arrangements (SOHC or DOHC).
Description: Ed Iskenderian was a Southern California hot rodder in the years leading up to WWII, working to make his roadster go faster. Post war, a high demand for parts from returning GIs eager to get back to hot rodding was so great that Iskenderian was faced with a long wait for a cam he wanted for his own car. Figuring he could do just as well himself, he bought a surplus cylindrical grinder, converted it into a cam-grinding machine, and went to work. He wasn’t just making a similar cam to those available at the time – he made them better. His cams made big power, and a business grew on the strength of that reputation that would succeed for decades to come, rightfully earning the title of America's fastest racing cams.
Description: What is now known as "STP" was invented by German scientists during WWII as a response to Germany's need for lubrication of the German war-machine vehicles. WWII US Army divisions in Africa that overtook German Afrika Korps vehicles alleged that the Germans employed an engine oil that is now known as STP formulation full-strength in their air-cooled 4-cylinder engines, which successfully traveled through the hot African Desert war-front without seizing due to friction and extreme heat. How the Germans' original chemical synthesis formulation found its way to the U.S. after WWII is not known, but most likely it made that journey along with many of the other German innovations through the distribution of technology through the spoils of war.
Description: Founded in 1964 in Columbus, Ohio, Nationwise was a chain of auto parts stores in the United States. In 1974, Nationwise partnered with Columbus-based engine builders, The Rod Shop, sponsoring a series of highly successful drag racecars. In stores, a Rod Shop section was created as kind of a speed shop inside of a parts store. In addition to go fast goodies from all the big names, Nationwise also sold Rod Shop branded performance parts. These parts were typically embossed with NRS (Nationwise Rod Shop), making them easy to identify by collectors, even decades later. The Rod Shop partnership ended in 1987, and less than a decade later, Nationwise became insolvent, and closed all stores on Sunday, October 15, 1995 at 3:00 PM.
Description: Weber Speed Equipment started out in 1945 as Weber Tool Company, making some of the first aluminum performance fly wheels. As the company continued to expand their speed parts catalog with cams, clutches, and heads, becoming increasingly popular with hot rodders and racers alike, they changed their name to Weber Speed Equipment. Aside from making high quality, extreme high-performance parts, one of their biggest claims to fame was their 'blow up proof' guarantee on their flywheels, something that was a big draw to those pushing higher horsepower and revs in the early days of drag racing.
Description: Super Stock & Drag Illustrated was founded by John "Monk" Reynolds, publisher of Eastern Drag News and owner of Pennsylvania's US30 drag strip. The first issue was November 1964 and the magazine published continuously until June 1996 when it was re-titled 'Drag Racing' and only made it a few more years until a final issue in March 1999. The magazine was a thoughtful mix of drag racing coverage, tech articles, and street machines, which gave it pretty diverse appeal to gear heads of all sorts.
Description: Speed-O-Motive got their start manufacturing custom pistons for flathead racing engines, but eventually began distributing speed parts and offering high-performance engine rebuild kits for pretty much every V8 application out there. If you couldn't swing by their Los Angeles area shop, you could mail order your parts, even complete engines after they begin offering turn key balanced and blueprinted crate racing engines. These crate strokers all ran Speed-O-Motive racing pistons, and the rest of the build leveraged top shelf goodies from other manufacturers.
Description: Founded in 1925, Mallory initially developed OEM ignition systems for many early cars, but by the '50s, they were known for their aftermarket systems for hot rods and drag racers who needed more oomph to get their high-compression engines to light and for those needing more adjustability for fine-tuning and keeping their monster motors humming along. Mighty Mallory was a fun superhero inspired character introduced in 1962 and was most commonly found on decals handed out at drag racing events.
