Wow had a great time! This was some tour. We saw shock, manifold, and cylinder head machining and engineering. We also saw support services such as in-house print shop, tech line, and show vehicles.

First, we met at the new shock facility. John Costas gave the shock tour. This is a new facility that we were probably ones to tour it. He showed us how shock bodies are formed with an impressive flame swage press. We then saw the assembly and quality control stations. Each Edelbrock shock is tested on a shock dyno machine ! Edelbrock IAS shocks have a dual circuit design that enable it to ride smooth in appropriate conditions and still have a performance circuit for aggressive driving. Camme Edelbrock, Vic Jr’s daughter, even came by to say hello while on her way to shopping for wedding dresses. Quite impressive so far. And then we caravaned to the main plant and headquarters.

At this point, Jim Losse led the tour. To start, we got to see behind the doors of the Engineering Department. They showed us the new small block Chrysler aluminum cylinder head with a bunch of prototype paraphernalia. First thing to note; Edelbrock states their marketing approach emphasizes streetable performance. These heads don’t have gargantuan ports or require special valve train. But don’t worry, they far outflow a stock X head. And they definitely showed us the goods to back it up. The cylinder head is designed on Pro Engineering 3-D modeling software. From that information, an actual plastic-like head can be laser formed directly, no sweat. This process is called stereolighagraphy. These guys aren’t messing around. This clear plastic-like section of a head can then be put on the flow bench. The engineer present for us (on a Saturday) showed us plastic molds of the new ports compared to the stock ones. No funny doglegs or intrusions to prohibit any power.

To show us some of this power, we went to the dyno cell(s). Edelbrock had wished us to see the new head in action, but they had busted an aluminum prototype head in testing days before. Don’t worry, they are adding material to the casting to prevent problem. Hey that’s what testing is for, iron out those quirks to save the customer’s butt. Thanks man. But they still put together an engine just for us! Wow, aren’t we special ! Sitting on the dyno was a 340 J head motor with Edelbrock cam, intake, and carb. We saw it pull around 370 or so horsepower on the dyno pull. And this was just a tease to what the aluminum head motor would do!

Next, we were led through the building halls filled with years of pictures and heard some of the stories that went with them. We ended up in the large tech answer line office. There were many stations to help customers with the most basic problems. On the way out of the office building we saw the print shop. Edelbrock even prints and designs their own catalogs and fliers!

Much of those catalogs are filled with Edelbrock’s famous manifolds. We saw the machining of those manifolds next. There were many huge multi-million dollar computer controlled machines to quickly and precisely machine manifolds and heads. In the Quality Control Department, we saw a robotic coordinate measuring machine checking products from each shift to ensure incredible accuracy.

Lastly, we finished up the tour with a lunch buffet in the show car building. An ample spread of food was laid out and questions from the crowd were fielded by some of the handful of employees present. We looked around at the collection of cars present. There was a red Viper GTS present, among the Phords and Chebbies. One interesting car of note was the Smokey Yunick’s 67 Camaro Z28 "cheater car". There are some interesting tales that go with this car, as with most Yunick creations. As well as a Mustang that races in vintage Trans-Am races. At this point I presented a plaque to the Edelbrock Corporation in thanks for our tour. A great day and a great time for all.