10 Things You Should Know About the Brilliant Zora-Arkus Duntov
Zora Arkus-Duntov is widely recognized as the "Father of the Corvette." Here are 10 facts that help explain his unique position in the engineering and development history of America's original sports car.
1. Love at First Site with the 1953 Corvette Show Car
Harley Earl's 1953 Corvette show car was the undeniable star of the 1953 New York Autorama, and after seeing it, Zora persuaded Chevrolet to hire him. Duntov was captivated by the beauty of the design but very disappointed at the mundane drivetrain and chassis. Convinced that he could develop the new vehicle into a world-class sports car, he wrote to Chevrolet president Ed Cole and GM R&D chief Maurice Olley, briefly sketching his vision for the Corvette. They hired him immediately as an assistant staff engineer.
2. The "Duntov Letter" put Chevrolet in the High Performance Business
Only six months after joining Chevrolet, Zora wrote his now-famous letter to Olley entitled, "Thoughts Pertaining to Youth, Hot-Rodder, and Chevrolet." The letter is a must read for all Chevrolet performance enthusiasts, and it is available to read here. It is almost prophetic in that Duntov correctly anticipates the explosion of the hot rod/high performance market and urges Chevy to accelerate the development of the not even introduced yet small block V8 and supplement the effort by making available high performance parts such as camshafts and manifolds. He is astute enough to realize that Chevy is not yet associated with high performance, so he suggest that they use the parts to increase the performance of their cars from the factory and then readily offer the parts to hot rodders.
3. Pushed for the V8 in the Corvette ASAP
Chevy was wise enough to immediately buy into Duntov's vision for the Corvette, and he helped carry out the plan by seeing to it that the new 265ci small block V8 was available in the Corvette in 1955 - the engine's first year of production. In the meantime, he and his team were developing high-performance parts for the small block (the "Duntov Racing Cam" is a famous example), with the intention of increasing the performance of this halo car year by year.
4. Created the First Fuel Injection System in American Cars
Having spent his formative years in Europe, Zora was familiar with the racing success and engineering brilliance of the great marques such as Porsche, Ferrari, and Mercedes-Benz. In racing at the time, hard cornering tended to starve carbureted engines, so fuel injection was developed by Mercedes and others. Determined that the Corvette become a world-class sports car and excel in racing venues, Duntov gladly accepted the assignment of developing a fuel injection system for the Chevy small block. An added benefit of fuel injection was the ability to run camshafts with less vacuum at idle, higher lift, and more duration, for more top end power. The result was the 1957 "Fuelie" 283, the first domestic production engine to achieve one horsepower per cubic inch. Of course, it quickly became the top engine choice in Duntov's Corvette.
5. Responsible for the C2 Corvette's Independent Rear Suspension Design
High performance engines, fuel injection systems, disc brakes, and 4-wheel independent rear suspensions (IRS) -- these were the hallmarks of Europe's great sports and racing cars of the 1950s and 1960s. Duntov was able to achieve the design and incorporation of this last element (i.e., IRS) into the very first year of the C2. The system, which featured a fixed rear differential, transverse leaf spring, half shafts, and control arms, was so well designed that it persisted relatively unchanged through 1982, the last year of the C3.
6. Hated the Vision Impaired Split Window Coupe
As an engineer, Zora was a function over form kind of guy, and hated the way the spit rear window on the 1963 Corvette blocked rear vision. Most people don't know that Duntov was engaged in a battle with Chevrolet design vice-president Bill Mitchell over the chassic configureation of the successor to the C1, fighting for a mid-engined design, while Mitchell was enamored with the long hood, short deck Sting Ray design concept. Duntov wanted to take the Sting Ray all the way to what he considered the epitome of state-of-the-art sports car design with the engine behind the driver. but he lost that battle (see more about his efforts on Slide 9). But the purist in him continued to object to some of the less desirable -- from a driver's point of view -- design elements of the front engined C2. His argument against the split in the 1963 rear window design was persistent and convincing enough that a one piece window was adopted the very next year.
7. Insisted on 4-wheel Disc Brakes
Duntov long considered the Corvette's drum brakes to be its limiting factor in its high-performance aspirations. Since he was continually pushing the car toward his vision of an unapproachable sporting machine, his team developed the first 4-wheel disc brake system in a domestic production car. Drum brakes on all 4 wheels were still the norm on most American cars, but he convinced Chevrolet management to incorporate 4-wheel discs into the C2 Vette in 1965.
8. Helped Develop the Big Block Chevy V8
As the Muscle Car wars heated up in the mid-60s and early 70s, it became clear that big block engine designs like the Ford 427 and the Chrysler 426 Street Hemi would ultimately rule all the racing programs, from NASCAR to NHRA drag racing. The Chevy small block V8 at the time developed good power, but was limited to just 327 cubic inches by the bore spacing and metallurgy of the time. Determined to keep Chevrolet at the forefront of both competition and street performance, Duntov was instrumental in the development of Chevy's big block engine from the 348/409 W motor. The Corvette was eventually the beneficiary of the ultimate Chevy big block engines of the era -- the aluminum head L-88 and the incredible, all-aluminum ZL-1.
9. The First Mid-Engined Corvette Concept
Duntov's ultimate vision for the Corvette was a high-performance mid-engined design, following the revolution taking open wheeled racing, drag racing, and sports car design by storm. The Astro II XP-880 in 1968 was the first mid-engined Corvette concept, and had a big block motor behind the seats, backwards. a torque converter was bolted to what normally was the front of the motor, and a Pontiac Tempest 2 speed Powerglide transaxle delivered the power to the wheels. The XP-882 of 1969 (pictured) improved on the weakness and undesirability of that drivetrain, by mounting the motor transversely, with a Toronado transaxle sending power via one axle output to the stock Corvette rear suspension. This still was less than ideal, as it was heavy, and replaced the 4 speed manual with a 3 speed automatic transmission.
10. Enshrined at the National Corvette Museum
As befits the Father of the Corvette, Zora Arkus-Duntov merits a dedicated shrine within the National Corvette Museum, where his ashes are interred and his glorious career commemorated for the benefit of future generations. Zora was also a member of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, the Chevrolet Legends of Performance, the Automotive Hall of Fame, the SEMA Hall of Fame and the National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame, and numerous of his trophies and awards are there as well.
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