AUTOS CARS CUSTOM

Duntov was so furious that the 67 Vette was on an unimproved chassis, he fired off a memo to the top GM brass. They canned his ass from engineering. Then they disbanded engineering, made Duntov do PR. Other engineers were sent to passenger car work.

 Design was the favorite department, they made the Corvette look good, sell well, and GM was all about the profit, not about the racing. Makes sense from a corporate perspective, less liability in sports cars than race cars.

But the 67 was so bad, Car and Driver editor told the readers, it was unfit for a road test. The aerodynamics were so far off, it floated, and it's quality was horrible.

It looked great, but remember that at the time the unions were causing production problems, and GM couldn't handle that.

Pete Estes quickly got things back in order, restoring Engineering and named Duntov chief engineer. 12 months later, the 68 Vette was named "Best all around car in the world" by Car and Driver. That is astonishing improvement

info from Corvette Sixty Years page 98

Chevy never could get Turbos to work well before Duntov retired, and after he did, he worked with some company to market the Duntov 1980 Convertible Turbo Corvette. It wasn't smog legal in California

 I came across this in my neighborhood

 Dodge made a 600ES? Huh,  looks like a late 80's Aries K car
 RARE 1981 corvette, a Duntov Turbo edition. Corvettes were just not going to get turbos according to the GM managers


 Off.. a jag that got a nose job, and looks worse, from http://parkoffka.ru/ who has a lot of great content, but NEVER add a credit to their posts to tell you where they got the stuff they post. I don't like that
 I think the above Ford truck was from one of my favorite Brazilian websites, it's a South American Ford crew cab and maybe not even a pick up bed.



The pancake shaped flying wing V173

348/350 HP law-enforcement pursuit vehicles, featured in Motor Trend (Dec. 58) and Muscle Car Review (Feb 2008)

In addition to the galleries of Super Sport Corvettes that Zora made, I've posted very little biographical info about him. I just read the following

The Belgian born son of Russian Jewish parents, Duntov had already outrun the Nazis, revolutionized hot-rodding (with his eponymous line of Ardun accessories for Ford’s Flathead V8), and aided the development of Allard sports cars by the time he saw the new-for-‘53 Corvette at the New York Motorama. He loved the car’s lines and despised everything else. So he wrote a letter to GM telling them as much and was hired shortly thereafter.

Duntov’s love of speed was no mere whim. While helping Allard engineer their sports cars he proved a talented driver as well and later piloted a Porsche 550 to class wins in two 24 Hours of Le Mans; the last of which, ironically, during the same 1955 event that would eventually lead to the AMA ban on racing. Nonetheless, he profoundly influenced American motorsports and, in particular, the Corvette.

By 1955 the Corvette traded the 150hp straight six engines and powerglide automatic transmissions of ’53 and ’54, for 195hp, 265ci V8s and three speed manual transmissions. By ’57 the Corvette added a 283hp 283ci V8, a limited slip differential and fuel injection. All the while, Duntov kept his eyes and talents focused on the racetrack and by the 1957 AMA ban on racing he stood at the center of one of the greatest contradictions of mid-century corporate America. While GM’s brass touted safety, forward styling and advanced color theory, Zora Arkus-Duntov quietly slipped some of the country’s most successful race cars out the back door; among them the championship winning Corvette seen here.

 Duntov would have a hard time explaining why his engineers vacationed together in Nassau during Speed Week.  Harder still the suitcases packed with Bermuda shorts and prototype intake manifolds.

Duntov’s available speed equipment; since the words ‘speed equipment’ weren’t exactly politically correct in ’61, however, the high performance parts were identified by their harmless sounding RPO or “Regular Production Option” numbers. It seems that while the AMA might wonder why any factory would offer a fuel injected, 315hp 283ci V8, they were far less likely to question “RPO354.”

Ditto RPOs 675, 685, and 687 which, in non-GM-speak are a Posi-traction differential, four-speed manual transmission, and heavy-duty suspension and brakes, respectively. The boxes of uninstalled parts that came with a few cars, on the other hand, are a different story altogether. Known by a select few as the ‘Sebring package,’ the vented hood, stiff front anti-rollbar, aerodynamic headlight covers, and 37 gallon fiberglass gas tank didn’t have RPO numbers and, by all accounts, left Duntov’s office without his bosses’ blessing or knowledge.

 Duntov would have a hard time explaining why his engineers vacationed together in Nassau during Speed Week.  Harder still the suitcases packed with Bermuda shorts and prototype intake manifolds.

Partnered with Zora to win races in Corvettes were Don Yenko, and Dr Dick Thompson. Dick was a dentist, and such an expert in winning SCCA raes with Corvettes he wrote a book on what a buyer should do to order the things only the insiders knew about (the RPO codes) and items like aluminum flywheels... and that little trick got Don Yenko suspended from SCCA racing for 6 months. FIA racing allowed the aluminum, but SCCA didn't allow them in B-Production

info from http://www.sportscardigest.com/duntovs-secret-corvette-gulf-oil-race-car/

Founded by Billy Durant, it was one of three car companies he founded that year (he had founded GM years before, but got fired) He founded 2 more companies the next year

Durant did so well with Chevy, that by 1915, he took over control of GM... yeah, Chevy bought out GM.

The depression in 1920 jsut decimated his businesses., and he left in Dec, 1920

When Chevrolet started in business, there were 270 car companies in America

How American is Chevrolet? Well, Louis Chevrolet was Swiss, Zora Arkus Duntov was Belgian... you get the point right? Immigrants are Americas greatest asset, and they made Chevy and GM one of the few comapnies to survive 100 years, and one of only a handful of car manufacturers to stay in the car making business for 100 years or more.

Durant wanted to capitalize on Louis Chevrolet's racing notoriety, and had Lou design a car. It was completed in 1912. Lou quit because Durant nagged about his smoking, and went on to design Indy winning race cars, and found the Frontenac car company

1915 was the year Chevy tried to compete with the less expensive Ford, and made the 490 which was the same price as the Ford (Fiat 500 was the cost in thousands of Lira for a cinquecento) Ford retaliated by dropping his price by 50 bucks. Lots of money in 1915

1923 Chevy had 500 copper air fin equipped cars available, as this early in the car making development process, getting water cooling to work wasn't perfected for another 30 years, and the Franklin was successful as an aircooled engine... they work fine in hot climates, like the American mid and southwest.
The Copper Cooled Chevys were a flop, they detonated terrribly, and of the 100 bought by customers, all but 2 were reaquired by Chevy, AND DUMPED THEM IN LAKE EIRE!

Fangio's first big victory was in a Chevy Master 85. It was an endurance race round trip Buenos Aires to Lima and back

The longest running nameplate in auto history is the Chevy Suburban, launched in 1935

The 55 Chevy Bel Air grill design was ripped off from Ferrari. It only was used in 55.

Chevy's first international competition win was a 1953 210 sedan in the La Carrera Panamericana

1960 Daytona 500, the Junior Johnson Chevy was 20 mph slower than the leading Pontiacs,... and Junior discovered drafting, and won the race. He'd been in prison for running moonshine in 57 and couldn't race in first NASCAR Grand National Championship

Jim Halls Chaparral 2J "sucker car" used a 2 stroke snowmobile engine to produce suction in the ground effects race car to capitalize on the design

The Nassau Speed Week of Dec 1963 proved that the Corvette Grand Sport could beat the Shelby Cobras and Ferrari 250 GTOs ... but that was the last call for Chevy in racing before the AMA ban. Zora was about to take them to Sebring and LeMans

The Chevy LUV (light utility vehicle) was the first Chevy sold in the US built by a foreign manufacturer. Isuzu

The Vega had 2 notorious recalls, the rear tires falling off, and the carb filling with gas til it spilled out onto the engine onto overheating aluminum engines

GM went into partnership with Toyota to get better manufacturing processes and production systems, and reopened a GM facility in Fremont Ca, and Toyota would gain experience in building cars in the US. UAW workers were flown to Japan, learned the Toyota way, production began in 1984, was an immediate success, and they built 8 million cars before shutting down in 2009. The things learned from Toyota were implemented in GM in 1992

Dick Guldstrand was commisioned to make a high speed Corvette to test Bridgestones, he hit 176 at Talledega . It's in the auction cycle right now, and it didn't sell at 40 thou.

found on http://corvettebrasil.blogspot.com/2011/04/test-driver-de-zora-arkus-duntov.html

But as Paul Harvey told us, you haven't heard the rest of the story!

Betty was fascinated with flying since childhood, and strove with incredible focus to be a pilot since age 12, getting her Civilian Air Authority private pilots license at age 16. In the next two years she was certified single and multi engine, land and sea, and at 18 got her Commercial Pilots License and in the next year was an instructor and the year after that, at age 20 was a major in the Civil Air Patrol and began her professional acrobatic career, also as a test pilot, and flew blimps, gliders, jets, and helicopters.

In '48, 49 and '50 she was the US Female aerobatic champion, and retired because there was no longer any challenge and she was exhausted from the constant touring, her plane "Li'l Stinker" is now part of the Smithsonian.

She set the high altitude record in 1950, and the speed record in a racing p51 Mustang.

In 1953 she was flying people around, and met Bill France who was having some racers flown to Daytona Beach, they became friends, and she drove a pace car in Feb 1954, then climbed into a Dodge and set the stock car speed record, which must not have been hard, she is likely the only woman at that time to drive one, and AAA certified her the first race drivers license for a woman

The National Aviation Hall of Fame reports that "Betty earned a total of four Feminine World Land Speed Records and set a transcontinental speed record."She competed in races across the Andes mountains in South America and drove the length of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Betty set records at the Chelsea Proving Grounds and was the first woman to drive a jet car over 300 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. She also set three women’s land speed records at the Daytona Beach Road Course, the last one being 156.99 mph in 1956. That same year, she broke Cannonball Baker's 40-year record for the Transcontinental Auto Race from New York to Los Angeles.

In 1956, she became an advertising executive with Campbell-Ewald and worked with General Motors on and in their TV and print ads. She was GM's first woman technical narrator at major auto shows, where she would talk about and demonstrate automobile features, later becoming official spokeswoman for Chevrolet. While Skelton was working with Chevrolet, she set numerous records with Corvettes, and owned a total of 10 models.



Between 1956 and 1957, Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell designed a special, translucent gold Corvette for Betty, which she drove to Daytona in 1957 to serve as the NASCAR pace car.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Skelton_Erde

In 1962 Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov came up with a lightweight version of the C2. Concerned about Ford and what they were doing with the Shelby Cobra, GM planned 100 Grand Sport Corvettes. The plans never came about and only five were built.

They were driven by historic drivers such as Roger Penske, A. J. Foyt, Jim Hall, and Dick Guldstrand among others. The Grand Sports, however, had many issues; the aero package made for a very frightful driving experience to say the least. Delmo Johnson said it was "the only car I ever drove that would lift the front wheels off the ground in all four gears." Dick Thompson was the only driver to drive the Grand Sport to victory. He won a Sports Car Club of America race at Watkins Glen. Today all five that were ever built survives, car 001-005, all held by private owners.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette_C2

http://www.grandsportregistry.com/63_history.htm

The Bill Mitchell and Zora Duntov vettes. Unique beasts