So, I came accrpss this add from 1965 for an intake manifold. 92.50$. I went to my handy inflation calculator, and it made me realize that these guys were coughing up serious money to go fast in the sixties. With inflation that intake would be 953.00$ today.
Some time in 1973, I bought a 650 CFM Holley Spread Bore 4 bbl. from a popular Auto Parts store in Ft. Worth, TX for $69.95 plus tax. Price one now!!!!!
Seems like $100 was the price for a new SBC Edelbrock manifold in the late '80s. Things were affordable then.
In 1967 a Keystone mag was 46.95..$456.57 says the inflation calculator. That is per wheel. In 1957 a pair of Edelbrock SBC polished aluminum valve covers were $43.50. That's $502.80 today 1957 Weiand Drag Star 6 carb log manifold. $78.00 No carbs or linkage. That's $907.36 today. In 1983 if a Edelbrock intake manifold was $100 that would be $326.10 in todays money. How does the quote go? Speed costs...how fast you wanna go?
I checked some numbers, the average wage per week in 1965 was $107, that made the Edelbrock manifold kinda pricey, even though Midwest and other speed equipment shops sold them for $65-$70 back then. In 2025 the average wage is reported to be $1250/week and I saw two retailers selling Edelbrock Performers for $227 with free shipping. Granted, there are many other ways now that we’re getting beat up economically and many other distractions today too, cable TV, iPhones, etc.
I bet shipping costs are on par with the inflation rates, shipping is so ridiculous today it effects the average guy's buying and selling.
I'm glad I bought all that stock when it was cheap in the 80s-90s. Now I can afford to buy a new intake manifold! but I was also able to buy one when I was a starving college student, working part time at the junkyard. Huh.
Buying power. Go the other way around. An Edelbrock Performer SBC manifold is $270.95, as of today. In 1965 dollars that would be $26.75.
I bought a “Performer” high rise single plane Chinese noc-off that had better hp ratings than an Eddy Victor Jr. in circle track applications from Performance Products for $125.00 a few years back. Killer all iron 357”
In 1965 I was making 1.25 an hour as a box boy in a Safeway store. Plus I wasn't getting many hours only working around 15 hours a week. 92.50 was so far out of reach that it was only a dream. As far as buying power. from 1965 to now. minimum wage in most places has bought a regular burger, fries and coke for an hours worth of work just as it has normally bought around 3 gallons of gas over the decades. Pick a time frame and check prices and wages and the buying power of the entry level worker has never changed for his hour of work.
In 1965, I was averaging $52.00 a week after taxes. My money went for food, rent, gas money and that was about it. The guy buying that $92.50 manifold lived on the north side of OKC and his daddy bought him the Chevy to put it on.
Funny thing, was talking to my nephew about similar things earlier today. We were talking about my mom and dad’s house. They paid 500 for it in ‘61/62 and had it moved for under a 100$. I can’t imagine what that would cost today. But I do recall the late ‘70’s, bought a 750 Holley through summit, recall the blacked pages in HRM? With COD charges was under 70 bucks. Edelbrock intakes at the speed shops ran around 120/125. That was for BBCs. So carburetors have gone up 8/9 times in cost, manifolds maybe doubled over the years for Chevy’s, win some, lose some.
Back in the early 80s when I started driving we ether bought used speed parts or saved up to buy new, my first auto body job paid 500 a month and I was happy to get it now the kids were I work make north of 20 bucks an hour starting out.
My story, only because the numbers are burned into my memory, is that in March of 1967, I bought a brand new L79 Corvette coupe, optioned exactly the way I liked it. It "stickered" at $4995, and I was able to get it for $4130, plus a couple of hundred more in taxes and fees. I financed it with $500 down and $163 a month for two years. Twenty years later I had an opportunity to buy a real nice '67 L79 coupe for just about three times as much ($12,500). I jumped at the chance.
For many of the parts you are comparing pricing on, you have to consider the advantages of automation as in CNC machining reducing labor cost per part. Also advances in mining the materials to make Aluminum and steel come into play. Many of these materials are imported as well. If you want to see these technology advances affecting pricing, positively, look how relatively inexpensive TV's and electronics' as well as appliances have become. As an example of how liability, legal and environmental pressure has negatively affected pricing, compare paint and solvent costs. This has driven the development of powder coating and the acceptance of patina in our hobby. Many pluses and minuses in our hobby which adds to the challenge of getting er done.
As a kid that was working in a parts store back in the 60's, when you had to be able to read and navigate the huge 3ft wide rack of catalogs. There was a time when the Delco Remy parts, came in some of the best superior, totally reusable, containers/packages, that had a metal top and bottom, and they were seen in just about every mechanics tool box that was used for something else. I used to have a bunch of them. Now they are collectors items on Ebay. You can imagine what it would cost today, to have such a container for parts that, was never meant to be kept, but instead just thrown away.
the first Delco tin I got was around the NOS light switch I bought for the 59 Chevy truck in the late 70s, from Chirco Automotive in Tucson. They're still around, I doubt they have much OEM NOS stuff left though! List price on that coil was $8.50 in 1958, I just looked it up in my old Chevy parts book. That's $95 today, according to the inflation calculator. A replacement coil, not reproduction, from the Corvette places, costs $35 today. That one in the picture is priced at $3750.00, which is a bit steep.
I paid $500 for a complete brand new 3 3/8 x 4/1/8 Crankshaft Co. flathead stroker kit from Almquist Engineering in PA back in 1966. Seemed like a fortune back then as I was making $1.15 per hour. I still have the receipt.
1966. Bought a set of 5 Firestone Deluxe Champion blackwall tires for my 1956 Ford Victoria. We knew the store manager and got a super deal. $100 mounted and balanced out the door.
1968. Bought a set of 4 E70x14 Firestone red line wide ovals at a local super market that carried a little bit of everything for 20 bucks each including mounting at the adjacent Chevron station.
From 1989 to 2004 I was stuck in the $10-$11/hour range. At that time a lot of manufacturing was being sent overseas, so trades persons such as myself (welding/machining/sheetmetal) were viewed as a dime a dozen and not treated very well ("Oh, you work on the production floor? You must be stupid."). I was supporting a teenager and a mortgage company on that, and working all the overtime I could get to do it! I did well, but anything that I wanted, I saved up for.
cfmvw: My hat is off to you for hanging in there as a skilled tradesman for all those years. Now, there is a shortage of folks entering the trades.
1965 was the start of the major speed equipment WD's entering the mail order business. Summit, Jeg's, Speedway, etc were buying ads in the books and selling direct to the consumer. All of the car books had two or sometimes three tier pricing for ads. Mail order ads cost less than an ad offering a product with no price. Both the Edlebrock and Jahns ads were designed to get the lower ad rate. Local speed shops couldn't come close to price matching the WD's. In fact, the mail order price in a HOT ROD magazine ad might actually be cheaper than the price a speed shop owner was paying for it. SUPER SHOPS franchise was able to buy in quan***ies from the manufacturers that allowed them to match the WD mail order prices. However, mismanagement and lack of funding killed the franchise speed shops pretty quick. Consider that these price wars were started long before the speed equipment companies were going off shore. T
I paid more for my Weiand WC4D manifold with 4 Stromberg 97's than I paid for my Sunbeam Tiger in 1967
The Jalopy Journal
