BEULAH - It's widely considered the most hideous and over-hyped vehicle ever to hit the highway, but the Edsel couldn't be more magnificent to Leroy Walker.

From its horsecollar grill to its spaceship-like tailfins and scads of gadgets like a push-button gear selector on the steering wheel, the Edsel is a car to be coveted, Walker says.

"The highway gets a little sweeter when you're driving an Edsel," he said. "There isn't a soul on the road who doesn't smile and wave at you."

Walker, 64, is the self-proclaimed and undisputed "Edsel King." His salvage yard a few miles north of Beulah, a town of about 3,000, is known as "Edsel World."

"He is the king," said Hugh Lesley, of Oxford, Pa., who owns "only" 160 of the cars, named for Henry Ford's only son, Edsel Ford.

"Henry Ford and his son, Edsel, would be proud of (Walker) for recognizing what that car was worth," said Bob Kreipke, the corporate historian for Ford Motor Co., in Detroit.

At last count, Walker had 226 Edsels scattered throughout his 37-acre compound in Mercer County. The disarranged parking is by design.

"I don't want a natural disaster like a tornado taking them all out at once," Walker said.

Walker has thousands of other lesser cars and trucks, but he doesn't know exactly how many or much about their history. Scraping and salvaging those vehicles pays for his Edsel addiction.

"The Edsels are the only ones I keep track of," he said.

Ila Walker said her husband has been collecting Edsels for all the 43 years they've been married. She hardly notices when another appears on their property.

"You don't want to know what I think of them," she said. But she does enjoy attending Edsel rallies across the country.

Today, the Edsel is the symbol of corporate failure. Slightly more than 110,000 of the cars were produced, mostly in the late 1950s.

"Here in Detroit, it is synonymous with a car that didn't sell," Kreipke said. "We must have taken a bath on that thing."

Walker and other Edsel enthusiasts say many believe the car failed because of its oblong grill, which many likened to a toilet seat. It was described as an "Oldsmobile sucking a lemon."

The car was doomed by a weak economy, over-promotion, poor initial quality, and a buying trend toward smaller cars, Walker and Kreipke said.

Other automakers, including other Ford divisions, "badmouthed the Edsel because they were jealous of it," Walker said.

"It was a good, sound car," Kreipke said. "It was priced a few hundred dollars more than what people wanted to dig in their pockets for."

Walker can recite a story for each one of his Edsels. About 100 of them run, he said.

There's a lipstick red '58 that caused its driver to be arrested three times between Las Vegas and Bowman, because he was mistaken for a bank robber who used an identical car for a getaway.

Another, a two-tone green '58 Ranger, was delivered that same year in front of a church for a wedding present. Walker purchased it three years ago from the widow at an auction.

"She had lived an exciting life," Walker said. "She drove an Edsel."

Today, both cars sit near derelict like most of the other Edsels, intermingled with other weather-ravaged cars in overgrown fields.

The first Edsel that Walker ever saw was in 1958, when a local farmer sped by his father's farm in Beulah.

"It was something unique, something different," he said. "I'd never seen anything like it."

He didn't own his first one until 1961, a 1958 model with a bad clutch that he got in a trade for a Mercury.

His collection has grown every year since.

Walker said he sells about five Edsels a year, and many parts.

A good-running Edsel can be purchased for a fraction of a used, newer car, he said.

"I can get you down the road for about $4,000 in an Edsel that will take you all the way to Los Angeles," he said.

Walker said he recently turned down an offer from Sweden of more than $50,000 for a restored Edsel Citation convertible, one of about 60 known to exist.

Robert Mayer, who owns Edsel World, in Fort Meyers, Fla., said Walker is obviously well-known among Edsel enthusiasts.

Mayer's company sells, brokers and rebuilds Edsels. He also is the founder of The Edsel Club, one of three worldwide organizations dedicated to the car.

"Leroy's got the most Edsels, that's true," Mayer said. "But he's very resistant about selling or getting rid of any. He's so possessive with his cars and parts, it's like pulling teeth. He just wants to keep everything."

Walker said the price has to be right for him to part with one of his Edsels.

"I'm not going to drive all the way to Virginia and pick one up and turn around and sell it for $500," he said.

Lesley, who owns the second-biggest Edsel collection, said he and Walker met about 20 years ago.

"We've both got that terrible Edsel bug," Lesley said.

Neither man has purchased an Edsel from the other, but Walker has high praise for his fellow Edsel lover. "He can spot an Edsel out in the middle of nowhere, just like I can," he said. "He's got some nice cars."

Walker said that because he's the "Edsel King," the cars come to him. But he's traveled all over the United States on Edsel hunting missions.

"I'll go as far as I have to, to find one," he said. "I always keep my eye open."

Most of his cars have come from the Dakotas and Minnesota.

He said North Dakota cars usually lacked such things as power windows, seats and steering. "Farmers had no use for those," he said.

There was an Edsel model for everyone, he said.

"They were made for the working man or the man in the law office or bank," Walker said.