Famed Engine Builder Ed Pink Passes Away (1931 – 2025)

Legendary engine builder Ed Pink, who worked on some of the racing industry’s best engines, has passed away at the age of 94.

Notable for his NHRA drag-racing V-8s, he also built motors for NASCAR, Can-Am, and IndyCar.

Known by many as “The Old Master,” Pink founded Ed Pink Racing Engines in 1958 and provided power plants to top performers from the drag strip to the oval track and everything in between. The business was later moved to its current facility in Van Nuys, California, in 1965. By 1999, the primary building doubled in size following the acquisition of an adjoining building, and in 2008, Pink sold the business to vintage race car collector, racer and businessman Tom Malloy.

In 2012, Pink was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, and just a year later, he was inducted into the coveted 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. 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,” wrote Tony Thacker, the former director of the NHRA Motorsports Museum.

“Pink learned a lot over the years doing what he loved. He achieved what he did because he listened and learned and applied what he learned. While he’s won many awards and been inducted into numerous halls of fame, Pink said that his key was to keep focusing on the project in front of him,” Thacker concluded.