Holley Performance Products

Holley Performance Products is an automotive performance company based in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded in 1896 in Bradford, Pennsylvania, by George Holley and Earl Holley. When the company was based in Michigan it was a major producer of carburetors for many Detroit-built automobiles.

Later they manufactured carburetors for both street and racing applications such as the Holley "Double Pumper" and "Dominator". Holley-style carburetors powered every NASCAR Sprint Cup team and every NHRA Pro Stock champion until both series eventually switched to electronic fuel injection (EFI). NASCAR Sprint Cup engines still utilize a Holley throttle body and Holley EFI is the spec EFI system in NHRA Pro Stock. Holley's product range has expanded to include the aforementioned fuel injection systems, performance fuel pumps, intake manifolds, superchargers, nitrous oxide injection, performance plumbing parts, exhaust systems, engine dress–up products, ignition products, data-logging and display products, handheld programmers, bellhousings, and clutches for street performance, race, and marine applications. Among the company's owned divisions are brand names MSD Performance, Flowmaster, Hurst, Nitrous Oxide Systems (NOS), Weiand, Flowtech, Earl's Performance Plumbing, Hooker Headers, Demon Carburetion, Racepak, Superchips, Diablosport, Edge Products, Accel Ignition, Quick Time, Hays Clutches, Mr. Gasket, Lakewood, Mallory Ignition, B&M, APR and Dinan.

Holley's history starts in Bradford, Pennsylvania, in 1896 when teenage brothers George (1878–1963) and Earl Holley built a small, one-cylinder, three-wheeled vehicle they dubbed the "Runabout", with a top speed of 30 mph. At the eve of the era of motorcars, the brothers decided to start the Holley Motor Company, and produced one four-wheeled model: "The Holley brothers built their first marketable automobile in 1902. They called it the Holley Motorette and it sold for $550. More than 600 were produced." The company today marks its official starting date as 1903 when they started mass-producing carburetors for Henry Ford.

"Their first original carburetor, called the iron pot, appeared on the curved-dash Oldsmobile in 1904." In April 1905 Holley Brothers Company was established with an address at 661-75 Beaubien St., Detroit, Michigan. The brothers then concentrated on the manufacturing of carburetors and ignition systems. As a result of the Motorette Henry Ford commissioned the brothers to produce a carburetor for his Model T. "The carburetor they built for Ford was an immediate success and the brothers founded Holley Carburetor Co., which became one of Ford's biggest suppliers."

In 1913 George Holley made a tour of Germany to study manufacturing methods, accompanied by Henry M. Leland, when it was said that a Holley carburetor: "was on more than one-half of the automobiles sent out from American factories this year."

In 1925 a Holley employee, Daniel H. Meloche, was awarded the Edward Longstreth Medal by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. He had invented an improved refractory coating for casting molds, allowing permanent iron molds to make gray iron castings over many cycles, whereas earlier iron molds were quickly consumed when casting iron. The process employing long-life molds was leased to the River Rouge plant of the Ford Motor Company, the Harrison Radiator Corporation, and the plant of Ludwig, Loewe & Co., of Berlin.

In 1929 the Los Angeles Times reported that George M. Holley of Pasadena and Detroit and a director of the Aviation Corporation of Delaware, has been elected a director of the Bach Aircraft Corporation. Holley, while serving as president of the Holley Carburetor Company, was also a director of National Air Transport, Kinner Airplane and Motor, Stinson Aircraft of Detroit, Air Investors Inc., Towie Aircraft Company of Detroit, and one of the original stockholders of Western Air Express Inc. In 1931 Holley became a director of the Warner Aircraft Corporation.

In 1952 Holley closed a plant at Portland, Michigan, which moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky. That year Holley produced the Visi-flo carburetor, with a glass inspection window to make a visual check of the fuel level, sediment, flooding and float action. The glass fuel bowl was manufactured by the Lancaster Lens company of Lancaster, Ohio. In 1955 the Wall Street Journal reported: "Bowling Green Manufacturing Co., a subsidiary of Holley Carburetor Co., each year sends its employees dummy "checks" made out for the amount each employee has received indirectly through fringe benefits."