Ah Vic, you were a force of high performance nature. Ever will I remember you and Nancy scooting hither and you in the pits on that mini bike. Always turned out in the company red and white colors. Ready with an effusive hand to help, story to tell, and problem to solve. His leadership volunteer spirit uplifted not only the Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association, but the entire industry was better for him being at the helm to navigate through rocky times.
I became well acquainted with this industry giant when SEMA tussled with the EPA and CARB over aftermarket speed parts and the Clean Air Act. Vic was always available to talk. Always. Together with Scooter Brothers of Comp Cams, Bob Burch the Tech Director, Russ Deane SEMA/NHRA counsel, Wally Parks of NHRA, Sheldon Konblatt, Dick Wells and Bob Petersen, I was able to craft a piece called "Vehicle Arrest" that laid bare the utterly myopic, damaging approach of the government agency. In the end the federal iron fist slowly learned the error of its ways -- much through Edelbrock's dogged determination to keep the speed parts folks at the table.
I was young, a rather inexperienced photojournalist at the time, but that story taught me the powerful value of investigation journalism -- something that was only as good as the sources that trusted you.
Years later, I was hired to edit Tom Madigan's opus of the family and company that went on to to win the MPG Dean Batchelor Award. Out of all the car scribes, he chose me help to help shape the enormous manuscript of more than 300,000 words into a readable 80,000, or so. Once again, working with he, Nancy, Camee and Christie, I was in the Edelbrock orbit for three months and loved every minute of it.
Vic Senior, laid the foundation, and then USC college graduate junior took the company to unprecedented levels of success. What impressed me most was Vic's unwavering, unflinching business model that Edelbrock was, and would always remain, "MADE IN THE USA". It meant he had to buy a foundry to keep that idea going, enduring much more grief than greedy people who want sell cheap parts at high prices.
To me Vic Edelbrock was, and will ever be, a premiere grand statesman of the performance aftermarket. He knew money could buy you position but not respect.
I can't cry because his life is over, I am smiling because it happened.