[Stan Weiss]

Rick Roberts PhD, former Director of Engineering at Edelbrock, Joins Speedmaster as North American Director of Engineering.

https://www.speedmaster79.com/blog/r...of-engineering

Stan

[Elarson]

Fantastic news for Speedmaster!!
Bonehead move for Edelbrock to put a guy like that out on the market to be snapped up by a competitor.
Rick is a great guy who deserved to land on his feet.

Eric

[mgarblik]

Wow!!! What a score for Speedmaster. Now they enter the big leagues. Aside from Rick being a great guy, look at his Bio. Are you kidding me? Edelbrock followed the exact pattern of EVERY investment group playbook. Get rid of everyone making a good living and all the brain power. Live off the good name and return $$ to the investors until the company runs itself into the ground. Congratulations to Speedmaster for investing in smart people to grow and build respect. With Mr. Roberts on board, Speedmaster becomes a serious performance company Congratulations and I can't wait to see what new items come out in the next few years.
Speedmaster hiring Rick Roberts is the performance part's equivalent of picking up Tom Brady as a free agent.

[72projectbird]

Maybe they'll offer their new cylinder heads in 87cc now?

lol

[mgarblik]

Mr. Roberts was one of the people instrumental in making the Edelbrock heads happen decades ago. He likes Pontiacs and has a keen understanding of the value of Niche markets. I expect some expanded product offerings for our beloved orphan in the coming years. Won't happen overnight. I would put it this way, other than the Kauffmans who do everything themselves, Mr. Roberts would be next in line with the capability to bring mass produced cylinder heads and associated parts to our hobby. I wouldn't expect anything new from Edelbrock moving forward.

[slowbird]

Really makes you wonder where Edelbrock is headed, sad really.

[Elarson]

Originally Posted by slowbird

Really makes you wonder where Edelbrock is headed, sad really.

They're headed the same place that every other great company goes after being swallowed up by investors.....mediocrity.

Eric

[chuckies76ta]

Wow!! Be interesting to see the progress in the future. Economy plays a large role also, but a win win for Speedmaster for sure. This company is just gonna keep moving forward.

[PAUL K]

Definetly an oppurtunity for Speedmaster. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

From the dealings I've had with SM they are a poorly ran company with a high turn over rate. Hopefully they will take advantage of the oppurtunity.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by PAUL K

Definetly an oppurtunity for Speedmaster. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

From the dealings I've had with SM they are a poorly ran company with a high turn over rate. Hopefully they will take advantage of the oppurtunity.

I agree with your assessment, Paul. But obviously I have a very high opinion of Rick Roberts. If anyone can have a positive effect, it would be him. But IMO, Speedmaster has a LONG way to go to become a premier HP parts provider. At least they seem serious with this hire. As far as Edelbrock and all the other "equity owner acquisitions". With the balance sheet as the only thing that "matters", this always happens. Production, Marketing, Sales, that's one side of the balance sheet. R&D, Customer Service, Custom components and low production items are on the other side. You can see where a Niche 40 year old Pontiac engine platform falls. Very unfortunate.

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by Elarson

They're headed the same place that every other great company goes after being swallowed up by investors.....mediocrity.

Eric

I agree Eric, but have never witnessed a debacle like the Edelbrock take over. May have had to do with the timing and Covid but it has been a mess!

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

I agree with your assessment, Paul. But obviously I have a very high opinion of Rick Roberts. If anyone can have a positive effect, it would be him. But IMO, Speedmaster has a LONG way to go to become a premier HP parts provider. At least they seem serious with this hire. As far as Edelbrock and all the other "equity owner acquisitions". With the balance sheet as the only thing that "matters", this always happens. Production, Marketing, Sales, that's one side of the balance sheet. R&D, Customer Service, Custom components and low production items are on the other side. You can see where a Niche 40 year old Pontiac engine platform falls. Very unfortunate.

I agree, I hope they don't waiste his talent. I understand Pontiac not being high on their list but would be curious where they would land. I would think they would be looking at part numbers back logged rather than descriptions and eventually Ford, Chevy and Chrysler have several choices for heads and manifolds and they'll be falling off the BO report as folks give up waiting and find other options. I have had six pairs of heads on BO since a year ago January. I could probably use triple that but have given up inquiring. First I was told March 2021, then April, then June, then late fall and now they don't have an "expect" date. Along with the heads I had several manifolds and a clover leaf spacer. The manifolds have all been cancelled and I left the spacer to see if it ever gets done. Another concern is the quality of their "new" products. The only part I have seen delivered from them since the move was an intake manifold the didn't have carb mounting holes or any of the accessory holes machined.

It makes me wonder who exactly is behind these three "investment groups" that have been buying up the majority of automotive businesses and running them into the ground. Sometimes I think it may be by design.

Hopefully Monogram & AMT are still around so I have something to do when I retire.

[Sirrotica]

Paul, if Speedmaster gets their stuff together, and you start using their heads will your slogan be, SMHTTFMF?

Inquiring minds want to know...........

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

Paul, if Speedmaster gets their stuff together, and you start using their heads will your slogan be, SMHTTFMF?

Inquiring minds want to know...........

Lol... It already is as of late!

[Mr Anonymous]

Exciting news for sure, can't wait to see what he does.

[77 TRASHCAN]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

I agree with your assessment, Paul. But obviously I have a very high opinion of Rick Roberts. If anyone can have a positive effect, it would be him. But IMO, Speedmaster has a LONG way to go to become a premier HP parts provider. At least they seem serious with this hire. As far as Edelbrock and all the other "equity owner acquisitions". With the balance sheet as the only thing that "matters", this always happens. Production, Marketing, Sales, that's one side of the balance sheet. R&D, Customer Service, Custom components and low production items are on the other side. You can see where a Niche 40 year old Pontiac engine platform falls. Very unfortunate.

......................maybe you can get him to make some iron "D" ports

[GoatZillaRacing]

We were the first Pontiac retailer to look these heads over and I must admit, at the time we were planning on producing our own heads so I was very critical and kind of hoped they failed to pass our tests.
We Bought some heads and took them to the bandsaw, slicing into segments and sharing our results with the Pontiac world. Everything looked real good, but would they pass our other tests?
They not only passed, but they passed with flying colors! Tensile strength, alloy quality, virtual lack of porosity, quality of machining, quality of valves.
Here we had an affordable, quality head and a real challenger to the competition. But we still needed some real world performance tests.
We swapped the valve springs and bolted an as cast set straight for the box with ZERO bowl work or even port matching on a 455 I built for Kevin Werdal. 9.91 @ 2952 lbs! Many of you know Dave Hoover. Dave runs the a '64 Tempest with a stroker engine and a Vortec supercharger. He was having some coolant leakage with his ported Edelbrocks and needed a set of heads to run at No Problem Raceway in LA. I again swapped out the valve springs and only the valve springs on an as cast right out of the box set of Speedmasters and guess what? Dave ran the quickest he's ever ran, a 6.20 in the 1/8th and is now on his way to dipping into the 5s!
We have BIG plans for Speedmaster and Rick's assistance will serve us and the Pontiac World well.
STAY TUNED!

[Stan Weiss]

It looks like what Speedmaster has said and a statement by Dr Roberts do not agree with each other.

https://www.speed-talk.com/forum/vie...c6d9ecaea8c50d

Stan

[ZeGermanHam]

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by Stan Weiss

It looks like what Speedmaster has said and a statement by Dr Roberts do not agree with each other.

https://www.speed-talk.com/forum/vie...c6d9ecaea8c50d

Stan

LOL