Zora Arkus Duntov

Birthday : 1910-12-25
Deceased : 1996-04-21
Born of Russian parents, Zora later moved to Germany, where he started racing. During the war, he escaped to the US to set up a car parts supply firm for the Army, which eventually led to him taking charge of Chevrolet, during the 1950’s. He was the father of the Corvette & continued, until just before his death, to attend most events celebrating the car.

Father of the Performance Corvette, as he was dubbed, Duntov began his career with Chevrolet in 1953, where he was first drawn to the company after seeing a XP-122 Corvette prototype at a General Motors auto show. He then wrote to Ed Cole, Chevrolet’s chief designer, outlining his ideas for improving the Corvette. Cole was impressed enough by Duntov’s letter that he asked him to join Chevrolet as a research and development engineer. He was named the Corvette’s engineering coordinator just a year after joining the company in 1956, and was also named director of high performance vehicles, and becoming chief engineer on the Corvette in 1968. He was responsible for such advances as disc brakes, independent rear suspension and limited slip differentials, all of which were found on production Corvettes. He was born Zachary Arkuss, to Russian parents in Belgium, and came to America in 1941. He had graduated from the Institute of Charlottenburg in Berlin in 1934 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He continued to serve as a consultant to Chevrolet after retiring in 1975.

Zora Arkus-Duntov was a principal designer of Porsche cars. He was the one who taught Porsche engineers how to make their cars handle correctly. Moreover, it was he who recommended that all Porsche 356s have a front anti-roll bar.