Vintage vehicles are all about preserving and celebrating the past. We know it's impossible to bring back the past once it's gone, and in most cases history has a difficult time repeating itself. There are, however, exceptions-and our story is a case in point.
To many of our younger readers, the names Bob Joehnck and Bobby Meeks are unfamiliar. Oh, they are occasionally heard in transient tales of early days in hot rod history, but they've somewhat faded with time. More accurately, these names conjure images of a pair of speed-obsessed pioneers-two men who developed the fine art of traveling fast in America.
Bobby Meeks began his involvement with speed on California's dry lakes before World War II. A child of the Great Depression, Meeks started working for Vic Edelbrock Sr. at the young age of 13 and stayed with the company for nearly 60 years. Meeks helped Edelbrock develop his first manifold, called the Slingshot. He stood at the edge of Muroc Dry Lake as the Slingshot proved to be a record-setting innovation. Meeks witnessed a Roger Ward-driven, Edelbrock-powered V-8-60 midget outduel Offenhauser-powered midgets one history-making night on a Gilmore Stadium dirt track. He has seen his share of history in the making.
Over the decades Bobby Meeks absorbed much information, acquiring an expert ability at building high- performance engines. Initially his attention was focused on flathead Fords. Then in 1955, he refocused on the Chevy small-block. Throughout all of his years at Edelbrock, Bobby Meeks remained hands-on in the development of high-performance products and building racing engines of all types.
Bob Joehnck, on the other hand, was never an employee for Edelbrock. Joehnck began building engines (after his World War II service was complete) when he opened a service station and speed shop in Santa Barbara, California. He met Vic Edelbrock Sr. at Edelbrock's shop immediately after he saved the mandatory $500 required for a dealer discount; soon thereafter, he became a regular customer. According to Joehnck, the long drive from Santa Barbara to Edelbrock's West Jefferson Blvd. shop (no L.A. freeways) was worth the effort. As his orders for aftermarket speed parts were filled, there'd be the added benefit of sitting with Vic Sr. and bench racing about the latest engine building trends and the various new products being produced.
Joehnck continued to build engines for all types of racing machines, from dragsters to Bonneville Salt Flats record breakers, to the Can-Am series and sprint cars. In his later years he also built and restored vintage race cars. Most importantly, he helped Vic Sr. design and create an Edelbrock manifold for the small-block Chevy. Bob Joehnck is regarded (by those who know) as a master craftsman engine builder.
With these historical facts in place, we fast-forward to late 1998 and a chance meeting between these two old friends and hot rod pioneers. During a bench racing session that followed their renewed acquaintance, a concept was hatched, causing much excitement within Edelbrock's dyno-room. This concept was to build a small-block Chevy engine using items that could be purchased by any enthusiast (including Edelbrock equipment) right out of the catalog or off the shelf of any speed shop. What a great way to test speed equipment in the real world.