Phil Weiand

About: Born 1913 in Los Angeles, Philip Charles Weiand Jr. who at the age of 14 was an aspiring musician that traded away his mandolin for a 1922 Model T Touring car. Another trade allowed him to replace the Touring body with a Model T roadster body. His time in high school shop class paid off as he built his first custom exhaust header with straight pipes and a downdraft carburetor intake manifold. After graduating Phil took his heavily modified roadster to Muroc Dry Lakes. It was May of 1933 and he was able to hit 91.80 miles per hour. In a quest for more speed he replaced the Model T frame with a 1926 Chevrolet chassis, added a Franklin front axle and two Ed Winfield’s downdraft carbs on his Weiand manifold. The next runs he made 102, 109 and then 116 miles per hour – the fast time for that event. With the race season over Phil overhauled his car for the upcoming season. On January 21, 1934, at 20 years old, Phil, with some friends, took his car out for a test run on deserted roads. This decision would drastically change his life. Phil’s passenger became spooked at the high speeds and an upcoming bend in the road. The passenger pulled the emergency brake which sent the car into a skid then a roll. Phil was thrown from the car and his injuries would leave him a paraplegic. Phil wasn’t sure what to do with his life after the accident and to keep busy he started working on developing a manifold with inspiration from Jack Henry’s two carburetor system. He was able to modify a factory manifold by adding high-rise runners. At that time he decided to get Vic Edelbrock Sr.’s opinion and learned Vic had some ideas on improving a Thickstun manifold. Phil made his decision and with a $250 loan set off on having 10 manifolds cast of the soon to be famous Weiand High Rise. It was the mid 50’s when Phil got in to forced induction. GMC 6-71 roots blowers were becoming more popular on the strip so Phil created a manifold specially for the supercharger. By 1957 Weiand was developing complete GMC 6-71 blower drives.