Brothers George and Earl Holley founded an impressive motorcycle company in 1903. The advent of the Holley Motorette was so successful that Henry Ford himself asked the brothers to design a carburetor for his new motor vehicle, the Model T. The Holley-designed Iron Pot carburetor proved to be a smashing success, and both Ford and his competitor, Oldsmobile, soon adopted it for widespread use.

The Holley Motorettes continued to sell at a blistering pace. By the 1920s, Holley parts and carburetors were found in major U.S. manufactured airplanes, including American Airlines and Pan-American. The military made wide use of these parts as well. Over half of the war machines produced to fight in the second World War contained advanced Holley components.

In 1951, the company moved its base of operations to Michigan, and engineers soon thereafter developed a modular carburetor which was used in the Ford Thunderbird. In 1965, the company celebrated its 100 millionth carburetor. Three years later, Holley merged with the giant company Colt and expanded its lineup of quality replacement parts.

The new Holley also manufactured intake manifolds, pumps, Thompson parts, and electrical essentials. In addition, Holley started churning out advanced fuel injection systems which won the quick praise of inside analysts. In 1994, the company was sold again, this time to Borg-Warner. Over the past decade, Holley has acquired numerous smaller part makers, including Lunati, Flowtech Exhaust, and NOS. The firm's headquarters moved to Bowling Green, KY, and the company was renamed Holley Performance Parts.