Ed Winfield

ED WINFIELD, one of the pioneers of hot-rodding in California, is probably best known as the designer and producer of Winfield carburetors, which were installed in many championship race cars during the ten-year period prior to World War II. They were also used by every winning car in the Indianapolis 500 races from 1933 through 1946, with the exception of Wilbur Shaw’s Italian Maserati in 1939 and 1940. By the time he was 21, the rather eccentric and reclusive Winfield was already being recognized as the first of California’s great cam grinders. Along with his more outgoing brother, W.C. “Bud” Winfield, in 1938 he created the Winfield straight-eight engine that powered the Bowes Seal Fast Special driven by Louis Meyer and Rex Mays. It served as the basis for the Winfield V8 supercharged engine that eventually became the Novi.