Isky: The Camfather Who Changed Horsepower Forever

Long before the muscle car wars, or the multi-billion-dollar aftermarket performance industry,  Ed Iskenderian, a young hot rodder impatiently waited on a custom-ground racing camshaft for his Ford flathead V8. His patience ran out. Armed with a used grinder and a homemade cam-grinding attachment, Isky decided to customize his own. In the end, he built a better mousetrap. It changed the world.

The legendary “Camfather” died February of 2026, but not before his story was filmed. Now streaming, ISKY deep dives the life of a man who turned his need for speed into a universal horsepower obsession. Isky didn’t invent the cam. He re-invented it, unleashing its potential.

He reshaped cam lobes, changing how fast valves opened, how far they lifted and how long they stayed open. His grinds let engines breathe deeper, rev harder and tap horsepower the factory had left on the table. His innovations gave everyday hot rodders the means to turn street machines into dragstrip terrors. But that was only the beginning.

Isky mastered horsepower with a grinding machine and mechanical ingenuity, then became a pioneer in computer-assisted camshaft design. From hard-faced cam lobes and high-density chilled-iron lifters to anti-cam-walk kits and anti-pump-up hydraulic lifters, he wasn’t satisfied with making engines faster. He kept finding new ways to push them harder. Perhaps his greatest legacy is that he invented the integrated cam kit: cam, springs, lifters, etc., all in one box for one price. It made buying cams easy and foolproof.

Isky Racing Cams may be one of the most recognizable names in speed equipment, but Iskenderian’s reach extended far beyond the cam. As one of the key founders of the Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) in 1963, he was the first SEMA president, launching a powerful collective voice for the aftermarket performance industry. The organization would become today’s Specialty Equipment Market Association.

Filmed just before his 100th birthday, ISKY puts the legendary Camfather back in the driver’s seat, telling the stories behind the horsepower revolution he helped ignite. It is nearly a century of hot rods, racing and innovation, straight from the man who lived it. For anyone who has ever chased horsepower, this isn’t history told secondhand. It’s the Camfather telling it himself. ISKY is a cant-miss -streaming now on Prime Video, and Apple TV.