Early life Iskenderian was born on July 10, 1921, in the farming community of
Cutler, in the grapevine country of
Tulare County, California, to first-generation
Armenian immigrants. Frost killed his parents' grape crop, compelling them to move to Los Angeles. He had an early interest in
ham radio; soon, he became fascinated with hot rods. Like many others, he went lakes racing at
Muroc Dry Lake, which was interrupted by the U.S. entry into
World War II.
Career Iskenderian attended Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles. He built a customized
Model T, adapting the
overhead camshaft conversion kit produced by the Chevrolet brothers (the
"Fronty" kit) and the "multi-flathead"
cylinder head developed by George Riley. After suffering a number of failures, and experimenting with
Model As and
Bs, he turned to the crankshaft of the
flathead V8, which had larger bearings; it proved stronger. He fitted Maxi F cylinder heads and a custom-built "slingshot" intake manifold (provided by Ed Winfield). Iskenderian filled the combustion chambers with cast iron, then rebuilt them under the guidance of Winfield, producing an astounding (for the period) 13:1
compression ratio., Iskenderian fabricated
camshafts and other parts in this shop for fellow hot-rodders. and died in
Torrance, California, on February 4, 2026, at the age of 104. ==Honors==