A ‘55 Zora Test Corvette for $3,500? No, It Can’t Be…

By Detroit Steel - November 25, 2015

Imagine stumbling upon this headline: For Sale: Zora Duntov’s Experimental 1955 Corvette $3,500 OBO.

It certainly had me doing a double take, thinking, Wow, this sure is a steal.

That was until I reread the Super Chevy header and saw the closing tagline, which reads: “Time Machine Required,” hinting that the $3,500 asking price for the ’55 Zora was from quite some time ago.

If I would have taken a few minutes to read a little further down in the story that would have been clear. The listing for the car, which was one of only 700 Corvettes built in ‘55, was pulled from a 1965 Hot Rod back page with the seller noted as a guy by the name of Chuck Schank, according to the Super Chevy report.

Evidently, Mr. Schank, who was a neighbor of Zora Duntov, purchased the car from the legendary Corvette engineer and invested another $3,500 in the Dontov test mule.

Even more interesting, it appears that Mr. Schank kept the car until 1968, based on info from RM Auctions. However, the Zora crossed the block in 2007 for $134,750, which still is pretty cheap relative to what it would likely get these days at auction.