Ed Iskenderian is a legend among racers worldwide.  Born in 1921, Ed’s passion for cars began with his first car, a Model T.  He learned the fundamentals of mechanics during high school by working on that car, and after graduation honed those skills working as an apprentice machinist.  Iskenderian got the nickname "Isky" back in high school, when some of his teachers could not pronounce his name, and it stuck.


Very active in hot rodding and racing in Southern California, Isky built a T-bodied Ford roadster powered by a Flathead V-8 in 1939.  He ordered his first camshaft from the great Ed Winfield, the master cam grinder who ultimately was unable to keep up with demand for his wares. Isky further modified his Ford V-8 with Maxi F-type OHV heads and Edelbrock Slingshot intake, and raced that car on the dry lakes with his close friend Stu Hilborn. 

​   After his WW-II service in the Army Air Corps, Isky lost no time in readying his hot rod for more dry lakes racing, but his V-8 rebuild was delayed five months waiting for a special camshaft. He reasoned that if cams were so hard to get, why not simply grind his own?  In 1946, Ed bought a used cylindrical grinder and fitted it with a cam-grinding attachment he designed and built himself. With this machine, he produced camshafts offering noticeable performance gains over the conventional Ford racing camshafts. With the ever expanding popularity of speed equipment emerging in the Southern California area, Ed’s passion soon spun into a business. 

   By the late 1950s, Isky had solidified his place in the industry.  A pioneer of new technology, he was the first to employ computers to aid in precision camshaft design, enabling him to create the most advanced racing cam profiles of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.  When economy cars became popular and gas mileage became important to people, Isky designed new economy- and street-performance hydraulic camshafts. Today, the company continues to grow introducing new products and services.

​Ed “Isky” Iskenderian:

• Created the industry’s first hard-face overlay camshafts
• Developed the first high-density chilled-iron lifters for drag racing
• Produced the industry’s first hydraulic racing camshafts, drop-in self-locking roller tappets, anti-pump-up hydraulic lifters, and high-RPM high-pressure valve springs
• Offered the industry’s first coordinated cam and valve-spring assembly kits
• Started the first corporate sponsorship of a race team for Don Garlits, who gave Isky the “Camfather” nickname
• Pioneered “Ultra Rev Kits” for small block Chevy V-8 roller cams
• Designed and manufactured the small block Chevy anti-cam walk kit
• Offered the first cams to produce 1 HP/cubic inch on gasoline in Dodge’s early Hemi V-8 engines, and 1.3 HP/cubic inch on gasoline in Chevy’s 283 V-8
• Gave his new cam profiles dynamic or exotic-sounding names like “Polydyne 505 Magnum”, “Five-Cycle” and “Superleggera 550” to help promote them
• In the 1950s, established the first manufacturers' cash contingency awards for drag racing
• In 1963, helped found SEMA, the Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association, today renamed as the Specialty Equipment Market Association, and served as its first president in 1963-‘64
• In 1985, was inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame and awarded Chevrolet’s Legends in Performance award