NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Ed Iskenderian, the enduring and beloved “Camfather” of hot rodding, passed away Feb. 4. He was 104.

Iskenderian was born July 10, 1921, in Cutler, in Central California, and was insatiably curious about mechanics and technology. His first job was repairing vacuum tube radios. According to NHRA historian Greg Sharp, the Iskenderian family was in the wine-making business, but several severe frosts caused the family to move to Los Angeles when he was just a year old.

"As he grew into a teenager, the Great Depression was on, and times were tough, but he noticed guys having fun driving stripped-down Model Ts [they weren’t yet known as hot rods], and he would follow these ‘gow jobs’ on his bicycle just to see them up close,” Sharp wrote in a 2021 article in NHRA National Dragster celebrating Isky’s 100th birthday. He basically grew up around cars, particularly fascinated by the hot rods he and his buddies saw around town.

Like so many returning veterans from World War II – he served in the Army Air Corps and flew supply missions in the Pacific Theater – he was at ground zero for the explosion of the hot rodding sport in the late 1940s, where new innovations and technologies were created on an almost weekly basis to feed the hunger of the insatiable hot rodders looking for a little more power for their machines.

He befriended Ed Winfield, a pioneer in the world of camshaft and carburetor design. Winfield once said he could tell from Isky’s questions that he was going to be big in the camshaft business someday and showed him how to build a cam grinding machine, and Iskenderian began grinding his own hot camshafts and making valvetrain parts out of a small shop in Culver City, Calif.

He intuitively understood marketing, branding, and promotion. A small ad in the second issue of Hot Rod magazine started the inquiries, many from the so-called “bootleggers” of the south. In the heyday of the A/Gas Supercharged wars between Isky customer “Big John” Mazmanian and the Stone-Woods-Cook team, he traded blows with other camshaft manufacturers, especially Jack Engle. Isky was in the thick of it when clever ads touting his success paired with hilarious Pete Millar-drawn cartons. His ads touted everyone who ran his parts, from Don Garlits and the "5 cycle" cam to Cook & Bedwell's wild dragster.

He ran his Model-T rod at the dry lakes and became a major player in the early days of Bonneville and the NHRA. He sponsored and supplied his camshaft magic to racing icons, including Don Garlits and Mickey Thompson. In the 1950s, having Isky (or Iskenderian) Cams lettered on your race car became a status symbol.

From his early days running at El Mirage with the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) to founding Isky Racing Cams, Iskenderian built more than just camshafts, he built a performance brand. He was one of the first to advertise directly to racers in enthusiast magazines, sponsor grassroots competitors, and turn performance parts into a lifestyle.

Iskenderian Racing Cams became a major force in the performance industry, with Iskenderian serving as SEMA’s first president and helped unite the aftermarket industry, and gave racers, builders, and manufacturers a national stage.

Even after eclipsing the century mark in 2021, Iskenderian remained a vital force and a treasured and welcomed guest at any motorsports gathering. Last June, his friends threw a wonderful 104th birthday party for him at the Lions Automobilia Foundation & Museum in Southern California.

This was the card that Iskenderian would send out to admirers. Over the years, Isky sent out thousands of these photos of he and his roadster photographed in front of the Inglewood, Calif., plant. The autograph simply reads, “From one hot rodder to another.”

Iskenderian loved to advertise the accomplishments of cars running his camshafts.

Don Garlits famously ran Isky cams for a time, and created this shrine inside of his Museum of Drag Racing back in the 1990s.

Isky had some fun with his old pal Garlits, pouring on the heat at the 2012 "Swamp Rat Roast" in Pomona.

Female gasser legend Barbara Hamilton was another Isky customer and reunited with "the Camfather" at the 2013 NHRA U.S. Nationals.

Even the modern drag race heroes loved and respected Iskenderian, including the notoriously brilliant Warren Johnson, "the Professor of Pro Stock," who chatted with Isky at the 2020 NHRA Winternationals. 

Funny Car stars Jack Beckman, left, and Tim Wilkerson also were huge Isky fans, shown hanging with him at the 2023 Winternationals "Night of Champions" at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum.

And, of course, John Force.

The fans clearly loved Iskenderian, reaching out for high fives at the 2010 California Hot Rod Reunion.

The Pomona fans roared their approval when Isky took a lap down the return road before the 2024 NHRA Finals in Pomona.