Ed Pink, The Old Master and Engine Builder Extraordinaire, Has Died
Mark VaughnMon, April 28, 2025 at 10:27 AM EDT
Ed Pink, The Old Master, Has Passed Away SEMA
Ed Pink, known throughout racing as The Old Master, whose engines powered racers from Tony Stewart, Don Prudhomme, Ed “The Ace” McCulloch, Kasey Kahne, and Eddie Cheever to victories in Indianapolis, NHRA, USAC Sprint cars, IMSA, and Infiniti IRL, has passed away at age 94.
Pink started out as a drag racing specialist in the 1960s, the golden age of the sport, building big block Hemis for the best racers in the field. Pink and Keith Black were the dominant forces in the sport, and their rivalry elevated drag racing in America just as it lowered ETs in the quarter mile.
Ed Pink and Big Daddy Don Garlits. SEMA
But as racing changed over the years, so did Ed Pink Racing Engines in Van Nuys, California. After decades of success in drag racing, Pink expanded into seemingly everything, from Can-Am, Formula 5000, IMSA, and even midget racers and Infiniti’s IRL efforts, as well as LMP2 and the Japanese Super GT championship, winning races in all those categories.
He did restoration engines, too. EPRE did the powerplants for seven entries at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in 2013, for instance. Those engines varied from a 1916 National Champ Car, to Chevy V8s, to Turbo Porsches, and many unique engines in between. Two of those cars were class winners. Ed Pink Racing also did the engines for two entries at the Pebble Beach Concours that year.
Ed Pink helped develop the engines used in Singer Porsches, as well as working on restorations of 917s for Bruce Canepa and others.
When Don Prudhomme wanted to sell one of his dragsters, the front-engine Shelby Super Snake that he drove in 1968 and ’69, he had Pink rebuild the engine.
“I told him, ‘All I want to do is a burnout,’ and he built a f** Rolex watch!”
Ed Pink over some barrels. SEMA
Pink was born in Los Angeles in 1931. Almost as soon as he could drive he was taking part in lakes racing on Southern California’s El Mirage dry lake bed in the Mojave desert in a 1934 Ford Coupe.
From that he eventually developed an interest in the 426 Chrysler Hemi, lending his talents to its development as the engine of choice among Top Fuel and, later, Funny Car teams in the growing NHRA drag racing series.
And from that came all the other racing series and the restorations.
Pink stayed with the shop until he sold it to local race car collector and sponsor Tom Malloy in 2008, remaining as a consultant for many years after that.Under the guidance of racing specialist Frank Honsowetz, the 12,000-square-foot shop has grown to include a variety of high-tech tools and equipment, such as the latest versions of CAD solid modeling and three-dimensional software systems, according to a 2014 article in Vintage Motorsport. One of the departments houses Haas CNC vertical machines, which manufacture some of the company’s products.
In 2013, Pink was inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame.
“There is a good reason Ed Pink is known as The Old Master: The man’s command over automotive engineering is legendary and in a league of its own,” wrote racing historian and former director of the NHRA Motorsports Museum Tony Thacker. “Engines and high performance have been in his blood right from the start. He didn’t have his first car 24 hours before he had the engine out and apart.”
In 2012 Pink was inducted into the Class of 2012 of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America along with luminaries such as Derek Bell, Ricky Johnson, Pop Dreyer, Neil Bonnett, Vic Edelbrock, Sr., and Danny Sullivan.
That same year, Engine Builder magazine announced Ed Pink Racing Engines as the winner of its inaugural “Performance Engine Builder of the Year” contest during the
International Motorsports Industry Show (IMIS) in Indianapolis.
“Too many times, the driver and the race day team are the only ones who get to hold
the trophy for winning a championship,” said Lake Speed, Jr., at the award ceremony. “The engine builder knows that he was part of that and, while there
are some trophies for those guys, frankly, they only win if the whole team
wins. This is more of a contest about who runs the best engine shop.
“Personally, I think the race engine builder needs this. The simple fact of the matter is,
nobody is going to cross that finish line without the expertise of a great
engine builder.”
