Zora Arkus-Duntov saw the Corvette at the 1953 Motorama and wanted in. On May 1, he joined General Motors—but his path to Ed Cole’s Corvette team began with assignments far from the sports car he loved.
Meet Mauri Rose, the engineer and racing legend whose work influenced Corvette performance and design — blending technical mastery with motorsports passion.
As a young man, Duntov was into boxing, motorcycles, fast cars, and pretty girls. After his formal engineering training in Berlin, Germany, Duntov started racing cars and applying his engineering skills to racecar construction. In 1935 Duntov built his first racecar with help from his racing partner Asia Orley; they called the car, “Arkus”. Their goal was to debut the car at the Grand Prix de Picardie in June 1935. But after a series of mishaps, the car caught fire and never raced. From this point forward, all Duntov wanted to do was build racecars.
Dive into Part 3 of Corvette chassis history, exploring the C2 and C3 generations from 1963 to 1982. Discover how the Sting Ray revolutionized suspension design, how engineering evolved through the muscle-car era, and how these chassis innovations shaped Corvette’s handling, performance and long-term legacy.
Begin the Corvette chassis history series with the C1 generation (1953–1962). Discover how Chevrolet’s first sports car evolved from simple beginnings into a performance contender, with key frame, suspension and engineering developments that laid the foundation for every Corvette that followed.
Meet Zora Arkus-Duntov, the “Godfather of Corvette.” From engineering breakthroughs to performance innovation, uncover how his vision transformed the Corvette into a high-performance icon.
Delve into the pivotal influence of Ed Cole, the “Godfather” of Corvette engineering and leadership. This chapter reveals how his vision and decisions helped shape the Corvette into an American icon.
Corvette racers never had a better friend than Zora Arkus-Duntov. After the heavy lifting was completed and the new Sting Ray’s design was basically finished, Duntov and his team set out to create their Racer Kit for the new car. It is not known exactly how the moniker “Z06” was chosen, perhaps by chance, but it sure sounded sexy and no one knew that almost 40 years later there would be a separate performance model with the heart and soul of the Racer Kit, wearing a Z06 badge.
