Zora Arkus-Duntov

The Chevrolet Aerovette designed by Zora Arkus-Duntov

Zora Arkus-Duntov (born December 25, 1909 near Brussels , Belgium , as Zachary Arkus ; † April 21, 1996 in Grosse Pointe , Michigan ) was an American engineer of Belgian origin. He made the Chevrolet Corvette a best seller and is therefore called the father of the Corvette .

Life

Zora Arkus-Duntov was born in Belgium, his father was a Russian-Jewish mining engineer, his mother, also of Russian-Jewish origin, studied medicine in Brussels .

After the family returned to Leningrad , Zora's parents divorced and Josef Duntov, also a mining engineer, became the mother's new partner. However, Zora's father continued to live in the family household, and out of respect for both men, Zora and his brother took the surname Arkus-Duntov .

In 1927 the family went to Berlin , where Zora, who originally wanted to become a racing driver, completed a technical degree at the TU Berlin and successfully completed it in 1934.

In 1939 Zora emigrated, meanwhile he had married in Paris , via various detours to the United States (New York), where he began to work in the automotive industry together with his brother. Your company Ardun (the name formed from Arkus and Duntov ) supplied both Ford and the defense industry.

As a result, Zora left America and went to England, where he worked for Allard in sports car development and also took part in various motor races as a driver.

In 1953 he went to General Motors in Detroit , having previously seen the current Corvette during a presentation, opted for it, but found it to be underpowered and too slow. On the basis of suggestions for changes that he submitted to chief developer Ed Cole and that had made an impression on the company, he was immediately discontinued, changed the product, the product philosophy and the marketing and made the Corvette a bestseller and the General Motors company into one of the most successful in motorsport in the following years.

In 1975 Zora Arkus-Duntov retired from active business life, but remained connected to the automobile and automobile sport throughout his life.

An urn containing his ashes is in the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green , Kentucky .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1952	HH Allard	Allard J2X	Frank Curtis	failure	Brake defect
1953	Allard Motor Company	Allard J2R	Ray Merrick	failure	Engine failure
1954	Porsche KG	Porsche 550/4 RS 1500 Spyder	Gonzague Olivier	14th place and class win
1955	Porsche KG	Porsche 550/4 Spyder	Auguste Veuillet	Rank 13

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Allard	Allard J2R	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					DNF
1954	Porsche	Porsche 550	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
						14th
1955	Porsche	Porsche 550	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
						13

Web links

Commons : Zora Arkus-Duntov  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/history/zora.html
2. ↑ http://www.corvetteblogger.com/2007/01/19/Zoras-Ashes-Rest-at-Corvette-Museum/