It Ushered in a New Era for the Small-block Chevy V8....
If I recall, the first performance-based, technical analysis of the new small-block Chevy engine was a piece penned by Racer Brown when he was the Tech Editor at Hot Rod Magazine. As did some of his journalistic counterparts in Popular Mechanics and Popular Science, Racer raised doubt about the stability of the new engine’s shaft-less valve train, the sealing effectiveness of flash-chrome top rings and the engine’s thin-wall cylinder block. In retrospect, such criticism was probably to be expected from automotive scribes only familiar with the bulk and burgeoned rotating assembly and conventional valve trains of predecessor domestic V8s, notably Oldsmobile and Cadillac. Certainly, even the best flat-head Fords were limited to less than 6,000rpm.
Vic Edelbrock, Sr. saw the engine from a different perspective. Even while the “experts” were creating literary prose and technically dissecting the little 265-incher, he’d ordered two directly from GM…so he could conduct his own investigation. He’d immediately
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Sr. was already well connected in the speed equipment industry. Two close friends (Ed Iskenderian and Bob Hedman) were literally stone throws from the Edelbrock shop. So he provided Isky with some lobe profile possibilities, culminating in the E-series of Isky cams, initially for the small-block V8 Chevy (“E” representing Edelbrock). Bob Hedman crafted the first set of headers. JE popped for some forged pistons and Vic produced a new 3x2 intake manifold. All this transpired over several months.
And then, on 8/9/57, replete with Isky E-2 cam, JE 11:1 pistons, Hedman headers, heads shaved 0.050-inch to set the final compression at 12.3:1, and Edelbrock 3x2 intake (using Rochester carburetors), this 265-incher spit out 279 horsepower at 6,500 rpm, becoming the first history-recorded small-block to produce the then-magical, one-horsepower/cubic-inch number. I know this is true because I have the original dyno sheet.
The event was a benchmark, pure and simple. In fact, the engine was disassembled and spread out for a HRM cover shot, with “One-horsepower per cubic inch” emblazoned as the lead blurb. Single-handedly, Sr. had collected (or provided) the necessary talent to launch the small-block Chevrolet into its high-performance orbit. But he wasn’t finished.
