Holley Carbs

In the 1800s the brothers began by working on, designing and building engines.  Their first design was a one cylinder engine that could propell their three wheel vehicle to 30MPH.  For the time, it was one of the most impressive and powerful designs.  They later moved on to making motorized bicycles as well as four wheeled vehicles.  Their first 4-wheel design was called the Holley Motorette.  With the Motorette, the Holley Motor Company was born.  This was the main focus of the company for the next few years.

Early in the 20th century, Henry Ford was having great success with his manufacturing process.  Ford approached the Holley brothers to build him a carburetor that he could use for his own vehicles.  Due to the stiff competition from the company, the young owners decided to go with the idea and designed Ford's carburetor.  This was their first forray into carburetion design and changed the business forever.  The Holley Company soon became the forerunners of fuel systems technology & have remained so for the past 100 years.

Not only did Holley get a good start with Ford, but they also had a large impact on both of the World Wars.  In both World War I and World War II, Holley produced carburetors for over half of the engines used.  Their carbs appeared on the engines of airplanes, boats and land vehicles of the time.  The Holley Carb continued to grow throughout this period and was one of the most well known carb companies in the world.  After the war, they were flooded with orders from manufacturers, as many people were buying cars in droves.  In addition to the automobile industry, Holley was seen in many exotic vehicles, such as land speed record cars and hot rods.

The companies products began to take the shape that they are most known for in the 50's.  The 4150 four barrel was introduced and was the  predecessor of today's Holley's.  Since that time we've seen these in T-birds, Camaros, Chevelles, Mustangs, Cobras and Corvettes, just to name a few.  In the 60's new innovations and lines were introduced that are still around today.  The Double Pumper and the Dominator series were born in this era.  The Dominator is still produced today and was the original design for NASCAR.

The focus of Holley hasn't changed much, but the applications have.  Since the mid to late 1980s, fuel injection has become the standard that is seen in most vehicles.  With this standard comes a change in the most common use of carburetors.  Instead of being produced for daily drivers, they are now performance parts.  You won't find carbs on any of today's production vehicles, except a few motorcycles.  You will, however, find them in NASCAR cars as well as drag racers and other types of performance applications.  Holley, for this reason, has become even more focused on performance and power.  In recent years, new additions to their line-up has seen great power and performance increases.

Holley's production facilities are state of the art and allow for very flexible design and production techniques.  Using advanced CNC milling machines, Holley engineers can design a piece at one of the terminals within their factories and send it directly to the machine.  Customers can have their own models designed and made by the company.

They have various production departments which, depending on the application, can range from small setups to large production setups designed to maximize the amount of units that are produced.  There are several different techniques that company uses to produce their line of carbs, included CNC wire EDM, CNC die-sinking EDN, Ewag tools grinders and manual machines.  The whole process is streamlined, clean and efficient.