Kent Enderle
Like a lot of men his age, Kent Enderle developed a love affair with cars and high performance at an early age. Kent built his first race car at the age of 15 with the help of two of his friends. The car had a modified coupe body and was powered by a four-cylinder Model A Ford engine that was modified by the trio. The car was built to be functional, and while it performed very well for that time, in the words of a magazine writer the car was “brutally functional”. From this humble beginning, Kent went on to build and compete with a variety of machines at the drag races, El Mirage and Bonneville. One of the teams Kent was most closely involved with was Brad Anderson during the period when the team was so successful in the top alcohol classes. Their alliance served as a dual purpose: one was simply to be part of the competition, and the other was to develop new products for the sport.
Also like a lot of the other founders of various forms of speed and performance equipment, Kent was not always satisfied with the performance he was getting from the available equipment, plus he had ideas that he believed would improve on the existing parts, so he soon modified and was building new parts that did improve on the performance of the existing equipment. At that time, one of the least understood forms of equipment for gaining additional performance from any engine was the fuel injection system available. As various problems arose from the systems he was using, Kent simply fix them by designing and building parts of his own. Before long, word of what Kent was doing and the additional amounts of horsepower his injectors squeezed out of the engine spread throughout the sport, and in 1960 he opened his original “manufacturing” facility in a 400 square feet building located in Eagle Rock, California. Today’s 18,000 square-foot facility in Simi Valley, California is a long way from the humble beginning in Eagle Rock, but it truly reflects Kent’s dedication to the sport.
One of Ken’s earliest and most famous designs was the Enderle Barndoor Injector that worked so well with supercharged engines. This unique unit was used by many of the top racers of that time, including George Bolthoff, Ted Cyr, the Frantic Four, and Tony Nancy to name a few. In 1962, Kent introduced his small block Chevrolet port injector that was aimed primarily at the junior fuel classes of that time. The system allowed the unblown, 300 cubic inch engines to use a 95% to 100% nitro mixture without destroying themselves and yet perform well enough to often win overall top eliminator at the local drag races.
In 1963, the even more famous and popular and Enderle Bugcatcher was introduce and was an instant success. In addition to providing more power the Bugcatcher was easier to set up and tune and allow the racer to make changes quicker. Over the years the Bugcatcher has seen a lot of modifications including the use of a hat nozzles in the nitro barrel valve, but the basic unit is still much like the original design. To the nitro-burning AA/FD and AA/FC teams the Bugcatcher provided the fuel system necessary to keep extracting more and more power from the engines. In an effort to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for more power, in 1985 Kent developed the Buzzardcatcher injector system that allows the racer to tailor the fuel curve to his specific needs and also provide an even greater volume of fuel.
Kent never lost his enthusiasm for drag racing, but in the mid-80s he discovered tractor pulling and became so interested in 1987 he initiated and sponsored an annual pull off for this division of motorsports.
In recognition of his involvement in the sport as a participant, a manufacturer, and a sponsor Kent was inducted into the dry Lakes racing Hall of Fame in 2003.